Trump and foreign aid; Trump and the NRA

Trump’s foreign aid budget

Three points regarding “Christian responsibility and the president’s budget”:

• Perhaps the president thinks it is time to consider America’s malnourished, ill and starving first.

• Very little foreign aid gets to those who need it most. Much of it goes to administrative costs and even more to a multitude of middlemen.

• A separation-of-church-and-state believer might begin to wonder why you should even care what a secular state decides to do with its own money.

John Elliott

Plainview

 

Regarding support for foreign aid in our U.S. budget: All Christians should support aid for the poor.

The problem is distribution. Too much aid is siphoned off by corrupt governments before it ever reaches the poor!

Also, large amounts of foreign aid go not to the poor, but to the military arms of foreign governments.

We should, in my opinion, cut way back on that kind of aid.

David King

Marshall

 

I could hardly disagree with you more on your position in this editorial. I believe the problem lies in the fact that the church has persistently and consistently surrendered it’s responsibility to the feds. We want taxes to do what offerings should be doing. 

It’s not the responsibility of the U.S. government to do what Christians in America should be doing.  There are millions of dollars in wealthy Christian pockets that could be funding relief. We should be giving more to Christian relief agencies to enable them to “offer a cup of water in Jesus’ name”, not to the federal government to “offer a cup of water in Uncle Sam’s name.”

If we are going to help those in need, then let’s spend more time emphasizing giving to IMB, NAMB, World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, etc. and stop beating on the doors of Congress and the president.  Not only do nonprofits do a better job of administering relief funds,  it also opens doors to the message of the love of Christ that motivates the giving.

Larry E. Collins

McKinney

 

I agree we need to continue to help feed the poor around the world. Before I can give my complete support of this, I think we Americans should have an explanation of how it is distributed once it reaches the countries that need it so badly.

If it is sent as dollars to these countries, it needs to bring strict accountability to how it is spent. If it is sent as commodities, food stuffs, it again must be dispersed by someone who is accountable to our government.

One of the reasons that I say this is that a brother of mine traveled and worked in the Middle East and told me it was not uncommon to find in the local stores food products labeled with CARE and other charities’ names on the labels.

If it is sent to the local governments to distribute, then people who are not in favor with that government, minority races, religion, etc., will have a very hard time receiving the help they need.

Giving money to some of these governments is like giving cash to a homeless person standing in front of a liquor store. Let us be compassionate but wise.

Owen Whitsitt

Graham

 

Trump & the NRA

President Trump observed his 99th day in office by speaking to the NRA meeting. What a match-up! The pro-death Republican president and the anti-law enforcement, pro-terrorist NRA.

Think I am lying? If just a fraction of Trump’s proposals are enacted, millions of Americans will die prematurely because of lack of health and safety regulations, lack of medical care, domestic terrorism, etc. In addition, millions of people will be consigned to poverty and experience hunger and other misery. All this in order to give additional welfare to rich people like Trump’s family.

If you don’t believe what I said about the NRA, simply read the angry letter President George H.W. Bush sent to the NRA, resigning his lifetime membership. President Bush was—and is—a Republican and combat veteran, and he didn’t set a record for the lowest approval rating in history for his first 100 days in office.

If Trump and the NRA revere the U.S. Constitution so much, they could have insisted the Republicans in the senate consider the nomination of the Supreme Court justice who had been waiting more than a year.

Ever hear the NRA quote the 2nd Amendment in its entirety, even though it contains only one sentence? Can we say “well-regulated militia”?

Carl Hess

Ozark, Ala.