Well, not the Christ guy, anyhow. The only Jesus in El Cajon’s city government, apparently, is the gardener.
Twelve people have been charged with a misdemeanor for feeding the homeless in El Cajon, California.
Now, if you read the Bible, Jesus Christ had a lot to say about caring for and feeding those in need. E.g., ““Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” (Luke 3:11). Or “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:37-40). Then there’s his disciples, e.g., “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:15-17).
But Jesus Christ doesn’t live in El Cajon anymore. The people there in the El Cajon city government may claim to be Christian. The police officers handcuffing people for the crime of feeding the poor may claim to be Christian. But those are empty claims, as empty as proclaiming themselves to be unicorns or cotton candy trees. Because Christians follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, which are pretty clear about feeding the poor: You do it. Because that’s what followers of Jesus do.
It’s pathetic that twelve people who for the most part express no particular faith are more Christian than all these people in the El Cajon city government who claim, despite all evidence to the contrary, to be Christian. The hypocrisy never ends. “Christians” who don’t follow the teachings of Jesus Christ continue to be a pox on the land. So it goes.
— Badtux the Hypocrisy-scryin’ Penguin
Badtux the Snarky Penguin 
Apologies for topping onto your post with another comment, Tux, but it’s been up here for almost 24 hours and no one else has made any observations. I don’t yabber on more popular blogs that get heaps of comments, because what’s the point of getting lost in a wordstorm? I’m not a loud person IRL, except when I’m ranting about Amerikan politics, and ppl here find that amusing (I coat my contempt with dark humour to make it more palatable.) Ofttimes, I just feel like writing my opinion down as a way of digesting it in my mind.
The concerning thing about this immoral outrage is the actions of the cops. It’s an indicator that when it comes time to clamp down on a targeted demographic — arrest them, imprison them, line them up against a wall and shoot them — Amerikkkan pigs WILL “just follow orders” and kill, Kill, KILL. It’s the LAW, after all. The LAW says “don’t give food to people who are hungry.” Those hungry stinky chaotic people are untermenschen, an affront to decent society who must be driven OUT, even if it means they starve to death. So what if other people voluntarily want to give them food, at no cost to society itself? The LAW says NO! and the government’s monopoly on authorised violence says the pigs can grab those givers, slap handcuffs on them and toss them in jail. The individual piggolice officers who handle the cuffs are happy to do that — no moral resistance in the ranks, I reckon. Further up the administrative line, police leaders made a decision to send officers to where food providers set up their soup kitchens, instead of dispatching them to speed traps with radar guns or some other money-making extortion. And of course, politicians voted to create this whole anti-Jesus law to begin with, so it comes from the top of the local (small-D) democratic power structure.
I see from your linky that Hepatitis A was used as a cover for this crackdown. (On a side note, even though I don’t trust the methodology behind choosing strains used for the flu vaccine, and I refuse to get the jab every winter, I did pay my own money for not one, but TWO injections immunising me against Hep A recently. I worry about that type of the disease more than I do B and C, because A can sneak up on me without me doing any sexy or druggy deed that might expose me.) “Illegal immigration” provides a self-justifying fig leaf for the individual officers who are tossing brown people back across the US’s southern border. “Terrorism” will let the murderous cops shield their conscience when the order comes to execute Muslims after some future crazed Islamic slaughteract.
It all hinges on the willingness of individual humans to boss citizens around, grab them if they don’t obey and smash with with violence or confinement as punishment. Amerika — hell, the whole world — has lots of humans who enjoy exerting power over others. The fig leaf of “the law” is a perfect way for them to unleash their dominance desires. doG help Amerika when the economic and political situation lurches out of control and there’s a widespread urge to make powerless people SUFFER as the misery level in society goes up the scale.
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P.S. I noticed far down in the comments to the NBC story you linkyfied that one wag pointed out how “religious liberty” gives god-botherers the right to refuse to bake a wedding cake, hand over birth control pills at the pharmacy and to scream insults at women going into Planned Parenthood clinics. But the commenter noted that same “religious liberty” bullshit doesn’t protect people who try to do what well-known religion founder Jesus of Nazareth told them to do.
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Total “Amen!!” to your excellent article and observation. Small correction: Luke 3:11 is not quoting Jesus, but rather another brown-skinned radical socialist, John the Baptist. I suspect he would disavow most Baptists in the USA.
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If nothing else the advent of trump highlights the GOP Christianist’s hypocrisy. None of them care about his serial marriages, thieving from contractors, foul language, bigotry, racism, financial fuckery, cruelty, pussy-grabbing sexual assault or any other high crime and misdemeanor. And they never will. Because trump and his neo Nazi cult following really are deplorable just Mrs Clinton unwisely pointed out. It seems just over a third of US voters are, always, authoritarian racists, their religion merely cover.
Combine that with our non-democratic election system, an historically unlikable DEM candidate, the arrogance of James Comey and brilliant Kremlin spy-craft and you end up with a mentally defective degenerate Russian-paid traitor posing as president. We are so fucked.
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[…] This was a comment on a post by Bad Tux’s Snarky Penguin blog, Jesus Doesn’t Live in El Cajon Anymore. […]
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