Home > News > God & Country > Q&A: Democratic Whip James Clyburn Talks Faith and Politics

Q&A: Democratic Whip James Clyburn Talks Faith and Politics

Reader Comments
Back to blog

Rep. Clyburn you need to understand that abortion is anti-Catholic and anti-Christian.
So when Rosa DeLauro, Nancy Pelosi, VP Biden, and others support Abortion they are being Anti-Catholic centered and Anti-Chritian Centered. The are standing against God when they support killing a Human Life.
God made it clear. Do not Kill. Jesus made it clear. Love God and your Neighbor.
What you do to the least of God's people you do to God.
Thanks Dan for asking the hard questions. They exposed where he stands and what he aligns with.
If you get another chance ask him one question, add this question to the list. Would he want his Grandmother, Grandfather, Mother, Dad, Wife, or self Aborted? We know his answer would be No and Therefore the slaughter of the unborn is not for the common good.
He aligns with those who believe it is good to slaughter 3200 unborn babies a day and 1.2 Million a year in America. The slaughter of the unborn is not aligning with God.
If James were writing his epistle today, he would not go beyond clothing [the poor] and say slaughter the unborn.
Seek, Speak, Share, and Defend the Truth.
Life is important.
Every Human Life is Equally Important.
Respect Life.
Love Life

ComPassion of IN 7:35AM October 08, 2009

What Clyburn helps make clear is arrogance of liberals in Washington who look at the rest of us as sheeple who must be herded together and shown the path to greener fields. If only we would just live our lives as they demand and serve the greater good that can only be reached by abandoning all thought and reason.
Government is the religion. Individual worth is removed in favor of a collective good. A person will either be those who make the decisions or those who must abide by them. As Lincoln so aptly put it:
We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny.
Clyburn, as with all liberals, think our purpose is to serve them. They need to think again and join the ranks of the unemployed.

John Galt of FL 5:08PM October 06, 2009

Mr. Clyburn misunderstands basic Christian teaching on the relationship between the public and private spheres. Jesus said “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s.” By this he sets out that the public sector is distinct from the private duties of the citizen. Remember, the question he was addressing was the duty of individual citizens to pay taxes to an oppressive regime unfriendly to his religion. Even though Caesar was an individual, as were all his senators, soldiers, and other minions of the empire, that did not in Jesus’ mind allow for a conflation of public and private duty.
If, on the other hand, Clyburn is really arguing that the theocracy of ancient Israel should serve as a model for our modern constitutional republic, I would call that an extreme, unreasonable, and unconstitutional stretch. Many try to make that analogy because Israel was often rebuked by the prophets for its failure to take care of its poor or it’s weak. From there the “religious socialist” extrapolates a general obligation of government to care for any need in any member of society, with no bright line demarcation to prevent genuine moral duty from devolving into totalitarian ownership of the kingdom’s subjects.
The problem with that theory is that Jesus specifically avoided the implementation of Christianity as a theocracy. He designed it as an organic assembly of individuals united in spirit, purpose, and destiny, which could act cooperatively with the governmental sphere, but was not authorized to use the police power of government to accomplish its ends, as Israel was. Jesus, prescient of the conflict to come, said, “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight…”
The Apostle Paul distinguishes between public and private duty even more clearly in Romans 13, where he depicts government acting principally as God’s ordained tool for punishing evildoers in the world, yet lays on the private individual the principal duty to love. If Clyburn’s conflation were true, we could then expect the government to love us with the sacrificial love of Jesus himself, and we could expect the church to incarcerate and punish all blasphemers. The absurdity of this blurring of public and private duty speaks for itself. Think Iran.
Therefore, Clyburn’s conflation of private and public duty is wholly without support in traditional Christian theology. If he wishes to promote it under the banner of a different religion, that is up to him, but he should retract his claim that it is a Christian’s moral duty to support the destruction of the individual’s right to keep what they earn and use it as they see fit. Jesus did teach us to pay our taxes even when tyrants like Caesar are the ones demanding them. While that may speak to our duties as private citizens, I hope Mr. Clyburn sees that it does not justify confiscatory taxation modeled after Caesar’s “beneficent" regime.

Springfield Reformer of IL 4:40PM October 06, 2009

Why all of you disagree with Clyburn.
Cause yer all raaaaaacist!
It says all you need to know about the state of our nation that such an imbecile is anywhere near the halls of power.
-sigh-

Zardoz of SC 3:50PM October 06, 2009

According to the liberal logic, charity which is a very strong religious precept, should force a constitutional crisis. There must be separation of religious values and the state. Thereforce, welfare according to liberal logic is a violation of church and state, be it Christian, Muslim or Judism. Where is the ACLU?

Andip of TX 3:43PM October 06, 2009

Most real charities are very efficient, and very responsive to the changing needs of the needy. Government is ponderous, inflexible, rife with corruption and waste, shackled with regulation.
The Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Habitat for Humanity responded better to Katrina than FEMA did. Local churches nationwide mobilize help whenever there's a disaster. Private groups raise money to provide goods to soldiers that our military can't afford.
Rep. Clyburn, if you want us to do good works with our money, don't give that money to the government. Jesus didn't stand before Pilate and ask him to feed the poor. He didn't tell the centurion to order his soldiers to build homes for the homeless.

Matt Dooley of VA 3:42PM October 06, 2009

My neighbor has much more money than he'll ever need so I guess I can get a couple of my church buddies to go over his house and collectively relieve him of some of that money so we can distribute it to the poor. Apparently Clyburn thinks Jesus would approve.

jack burton of IN 3:40PM October 06, 2009

"Give Unto Caesar What is Caesar's and Unto God What is God's"
They tried to trap Jesus with their comment on if they should pay taxes because by doing so they would be funding their own oppression. Any government can change for the worse, most do, it is inevitable because we are human and we fail. Our government is now as corrupt a body as ever but it is what it is and we have to except it but claiming my taxes are holy is way out of bounds, and they are given with the wrong intentions because we are called to give freely and joyfully. No one likes paying taxes, but that is besides the point. We should give of ourselves to our neighbor and only then will a virtue emerge.

Jonathan of MO 3:12PM October 06, 2009

'And she herself is pretty grounded in her Catholicism'.
Sorry, to be Catholic one must accept the authority of the Church on the faith and morals. That is the foremost distinction between Protestants and Catholics- the disagreement over the Church's authority. Pelosi may be 'christian' but she is not practising the Catholic faith and is anything but grounded in it. She is guilty of commiting scandal (misleading others into sin) by her false proclomations about what the Catholic Church teaches, and her rejection of the Bishop's and Pope's instructions on abortion.
Again, she is free to believe what she wishes as any of us are, but she is not adhering to Catholic doctrine.

styrgwillidar of CA 2:39PM October 06, 2009

"What is the government if it's not individuals acting collectively on behalf of the common good? That's what we are. So I would not argue with that point. I would agree."
It is apparent that James' understanding of the Bible is about as deep as President's understanding of Koran. James if you ever read the Bible you might discover the passages that say 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice'. Charity in the Bible is of a willing (volunteering) heart. Furthermore Christian charity principles are for Christians. The Bible does not give anyone authority to impose them on unbelievers or on a society in general. If you knew history you would know the disasters that come from imposing them.
What an ignorant and illiterate tool. Disgusting.

Reader of NE 2:22PM October 06, 2009