Spread the wealth

I try to catch whatever snippets of presidential campaign coverage that I can, and I've noticed that John McCain has derisively referred to Barack Obama's policies as "spreading the wealth" several times.  Over the past few years after delving more into Scripture and reading books by Shane Claiborne, I've realized that the Bible--and the Christian faith--is all about wealth redistribution.  So I found it a little odd that McCain was so critical of the idea.  I wondered if he worried about alienating his Christian voters.  Then I realized that perhaps the Christians who support McCain probably think that the phrase "God helps those who help themselves" is found in the Bible.

Anyway, I can't bring myself to vote for someone so critical of Leviticus 25, of jubilee, of 2 Corinthians 8:14-15 and Acts 4:34.  When God provided manna in the wilderness, those who accumulated too much found their hoarded manna spoiled.  After we've just vividly seen the results of the wealthy and powerful in our society making decisions with no government oversight, which has essentially been the logical end result of unrestrained capitalism, I find it hard that a candidate so critical of sharing wealth could win this election.  

Even Alan Greenspan has realized, after this current crisis, that his free-market philosophy is not the answer.  Even just a regular capitalist country has some measure of wealth redistribution, such as pooling money (taxes) to build roads, schools, and provide fire protection, among other things.  

I don't understand what's so awful about spreading the wealth, unless of course you ARE one of the wealthy.  Of course the interests of the wealthy are the ones that the Republicans are so intent on protecting, so why am I so surprised about McCain's comments?

Okay, back to my contracts reading...

Comments

[Gary]

Why do you have a claim on the property of others?

[Todd Littleton]

It is quite interesting that Greenspan would admit he thought people would self-regulate. As if greed could be internally controlled when everything in the atmosphere feeds it.

[Ms. Cornelius]

Why do so many people who claim to be Christian refuse to understand that we are our crothers' keeper?

[art]

spreading the wealth upwards is okay with the republicans. wealthy investor jim rogers calls the wall street bailout socialism for the rich.

i don't want my taxes to bail out wall street or people who buy giant homes even if they can't afford them. no one in this election cycle has even mentioned how much money is being poured into the military-industrial complex. the so called christians from the evangelical strain are nuts. they are not pro-life, but pro-birth. they seem to be pro-gun and pro-war (who cares about the neighbors in the middle east?).

as for greenspan's notion that "people would self-regulate", that's just an excuse. he created one bubble after another. there were people who had warned about this subprime mess a few years ago because of the greenspan bubbles. nobody cared to listen to these "naysayers".

[Jim]

As a christian, i tithe, and surprisingly have donated more of my income to charity than most politicians. I believe in giving up my wealth to charity and the needy. I just don't like giving up my wealth to politicians who decide to give my wealth away. Including all the waste, inefficiency and corruption involved with that!