"Prepare To Meet your God."

[Brigid]

I have often wondered what kind of reactions I would get if I were to walk around town one day wearing a T-shirt that said, "Prepare to meet your God. -- Amos 4:12."

I wonder how many even have any idea what this is referring to. He is an ancient Israelite prophet, one of the so-called "minor prophets." I should think progressives would love him. Here are just couple of samples:

"You buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals." -- Amos 8:6

"For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts." -- Amos 5:12

"Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-ending stream." -- Amos 5:24, famously quoted by Dr. Martin Luther King

Check out Amos. You will have the chilling feeling that he would write pretty much the same thing today. I often picture him looking around today's world, shaking his head and saying, "You haven't learned a thing, have you?"

[Larkspur]

1. There's Jesus' famous line --

"It's easier for a rich man to pass through an eye of a needle than to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

[Bandit]

4. Wasn't there supposed to be a camel in there somewhere?

Rich is subjective..However Jesus wasn't one for asking for the retention of wealth.. In fact he demanded his followers give up all their worldly possessions and follow him.

[trotsky]

5. S'ok.

Most Christians just assume that everything that sounds bible-ish and is something they agree with is in the bible. Liberals and conservatives.

[Larkspur]

7. Yes, you're right...

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."
My bad.

[Brigid]

9. Yep. Here ya go:

"You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.". Matthew 23:24. Matthew 23 is also a wonderful progressive screed.

[gratuitous]

2. Progressives do indeed find much in Amos

Dr. King used Amos as his text for many speeches and addresses, and the Hebrew Testament (as well as the Christian Testament) is chock full of admonitions to the powerful and the greedy to have consideration for the widow, the orphan, and other folks disadvantaged by society.

Our bible now is the gospel of Ayn Rand, in which thousands of folks who were born on third base all take credit for having hit triples. They spend most of their time now throwing beanballs and sawing off the bats other folks need to get a hit. This is called capitalism, and only real he-men and other rugged individualists need apply. Oh, and they need another round of tax cuts because they don't need to lend their financial support to the system that made them wealthy.

[southernyankeebelle]

3. Since the republicans hijacked God I stopped believing he is there for us because

why in the world would he allow these snakes and devils treat people they way they do. Honestly I don't know how any politican can sleep at night. The greedy bastards like the Koch brothers can only get so rich so why hurt the working people they are so damn greedy and I am mad at god for allowing these mother f'ers to get away with it.

[qazplm]

10. as Satan/Al Pacino once said

Free Will...it is a bitch.

Can't have any meaning in life without free will, otherwise we are simply chess pieces.

I have no idea if God exists or not, but I think whether it does or not, free will does, and thus the blame for all the good and bad in the world falls on our shoulders.

[Angry Dragon]

6. The radical right would not let Jesus into their churches

They would denounce him and have him arrested.

[kratos00]

8. Using the bible to make economic arguments

is exactly what Progressives SHOULD do.

Over the last 40 years the REpukes have very successfully taken small snippetts from the bible and parlayed them into a philosophical deathgrip on evangelical Christians and their votes in this country.

Democratic strategists would be well served to start making biblical arguments a central part of reaching into these republican strongholds to loosen that grip.

It would not be very hard at all to draw a direct correlation between the "money changers" in the temple and the corporate lobbyists who currently run Washington.

[safeinOhio]

11. W.C. Fields.....

They caught W. C. reading the Bible, and Gene said, “What? You, Bill, reading the Bible? You’re an atheist, what are you doing reading the Bible?”

To which Fields replied, “I’m looking for a loophole.”

[Recursion]

12. Amos and Malachi are my favorites

He was badass.

[Zebedeo]

13. Malachi

4:1-3 "'Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,' says the LORD Almighty. 'Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,' says the LORD Almighty."