An iconic Texas band, the Austin Lounge Lizards, has a song that nails the absurd self-righteousness of Christian supremacists: “Jesus loves me… but he can’t stand you.”
I think of this refrain when I behold today’s right-ring proselytizers wailing that the blessed rich should not be taxed to assure that everyone has the most basic human needs. Seems very un-Jesusy to me.
One bizarre focus of their religious wrath is a wholly sensible and Biblically sound national policy: subsidizing school districts to assure that every child has healthy meals to fuel their daily learning.
Yes, in the Christian Nationalists’ book of public abominations, government feeding of children is a holy no-no. Project 2025, the Republican blueprint to impose theocratic rule over America, proclaims school meals a socialist/Marxist evil to be eradicated.
The extremists cry that if there is any free-lunch “giveaway,” it must be narrowly restricted to truly destitute students. But publicly singling out those children would stigmatize them. Plus, how odd to hear Republicans demanding an intrusive, absurdly expensive, bureaucratic process empowering the government to decide who’s eligible to eat!
In fact, the federal student lunch subsidy runs as low as 42 cents a meal, so it’s far cheaper, fairer, and (dare I say it?) more Christian simply to offer it to all. Indeed, the program is akin to the Biblical story of Jesus providing fishes and loaves to the multitude. He imposed no income test — everyone got a fish.
Interestingly, the same lawmakers opposing 42 cent meals for kiddos today routinely and enthusiastically feed billions of our tax dollars to ethically challenged corporate profiteers who love money above all.
As I recall, Jesus couldn’t stand people like that.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.
