That which you did not do for the least of these, you also did not do for me.

I'm not a highly religious person so I may well be wrong about this, but my understanding of Christian principles (as you referenced in your Bible quote) is that you, the individual, should do these kind things to other individuals personally; and in that act of doing so personally, you become closer to God.

What we have instead is that taxes are collected by an entity with the monopoly on violence (and of course, it's understood that the people making more than you are not paying their "fair share") whether you like it or not, spent by people who generally have boundless disdain for the very people who pay those taxes, on people and causes on the other side of the planet. There's no connection between people, or between people and God, in this scenario.

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bonsai_spool 7 hours ago | parent [-]

> I'm not a highly religious person so I may well be wrong about this, but my understanding of Christian principles (as you referenced in your Bible quote) is that you, the individual, should do these kind things to other individuals personally; and in that act of doing so personally, you become closer to God.

Why not read the verse and see that this refers to collections of people? The source material is readily available, no reason to speculate.

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/matthew/25.htm

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gottorf 7 hours ago | parent [-]

I have read the source material. It says nothing about the morality of an intermediary forcibly redistributing wealth.

Again, the onus is on the individual to act kindly. If anything, handing that duty off to a third party is a reduction of morals. You are also speculating if you claim that there is a moral equivalence between the two.

	▲	bonsai_spool 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think we're going to disagree, which is fine, but I'll post the text and let others assess what the meanings of 'nations' is in the context of the quotation. -- https://biblehub.com/nkjv/matthew/25.htm 31“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the [c]holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. [...] 41“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 44“Then they also will answer [d]Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

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blargthorwars 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's easy to demand that other people be generous with their resources.

	▲	bonsai_spool 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		>> That which you did not do for the least of these, you also did not do for me. > It's easy to demand that other people be generous with their resources. This is a reference to the Bible, a sentence that Jesus delivered.