Before you read any further, understand that at this point and time, I (Kevin) am not endorsing any Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate. Whoa - Kevin - yep, that's right - this is my first ever blog post or whatever you call it.
In Luke 12: 35-48, Jesus is telling his disciples about managing the masters posessions. This is where the famous quote comes from..."From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." This kind of sets the tone for this particular blog post.
Yesterday, after my help called in sick, i decided that i wanted to do some research on our future President and VP. So, against my better judgement, i spent about 3 hrs on the computer searching through a plethora of political material - from the most liberal sites (Huffington Post... Daily Kos) to the more conservative side (very few from a media standpoint). It was hard to find much about the actual issues ( immigration, fight against terrorism, economy, health care) that i list as a high priority. However, one issue that kept popping up really caught my attention - and these were at sights such as CBS, NBC, USAToday... - regarding the tax returns of the Pres and VP candidates. This may seem rather useless to many, but to me, i believe that ones interests and priorities can be shown by where and how one "gives." I know that Jesus wanted us to give of ourselves and not just our money, but we're all given the same amount of time in a day - but not all given the same resources. Actually, i think Satan loves to give people money because it is the easiest distraction he can use and it seems so rewarding!! Anyways.... i don't want to turn this into a sermon, so here is a compilation of the facts that i came upon yesterday.......and a link to one of the sights that kind of summed up these facts.
Charitable Contributions
sorry about the messy spreadsheet - i couldn't make it stay orderly when i posted
Year ....Income ....Charity ......% of Inc.
Barack Obama
2000.... $240,726... ...$2,350 *******1%
2001 .....$272,759 ...... $1,470 ******.05%
2002 ....$259,394 ...... $1,050 ****** .04%
2003 ....$238,327 .......$3,400 *******1.4%
2004 .....$207,647 ...... $2,500 *******1.2%
2005 ....$1,655,106 .... $77,000 ******4.6%
2006 .....$983,826 ..... $60,000 ******6.1%
2007 .....$4,139,965 ...$240,370 *****5.8%
Joe Biden
2000***$219,953*****$360 ****** .16%
2001***$220,712 *****$360 ****** .16%
2002***$227,811 *****$260 ****** .11%
2003*** $231,375**** $260****** Approx
2004*** $234,271**** $380 **** one-tenth
2005 ***$321,379 ****$380******* of a
2006 ***$248,459 ****$380****** percent
2007 ***$319,853 *****$995
John McCain
2006 ***$338,809 *** $96,758 *****28.6%
2007 ***$386,527 ***$105,467 *****27.3%
(John and his wife file separately, so i'm sure some people will view this as totally inaccurate, but they supposedly keep their finances completely separate, so i would say this is somewhat accurate)
Sarah Palin has not released her tax returns so nothing is available on her.
The purpose of this chart is not to say that John McCain is a much better person than the other two because he gives more. I just found these facts to be very interesting and thought some of you may too. I won't lie - i do think it's interesting that Joe Biden really cares about the working class, but can't dig down deep and find more than $1,000 out of a $300,000 income to give to a good cause.
As i said before, we're all given 24 hrs in a day, but some of us are given many more resources (money and posessions) .... either from God or Satan!!! How we use these resources, i believe, is a major reflection of our heart within!! It really takes very little to live (even comfortably) -how great would it be if we could "decide what it takes our family to live -purely relative i realize" and give the rest away (even if our income tripled)!!!
Well, that's it - my first and probably my last blog post. This wasn't aimed at any person or party - just some factual info that i thought was interesting! Please feel free to leave a comment - even if you think i'm out of line for posting these stats.
3 comments:
Very interesting take on the whole thing. It's a side of it I had not thought of!
Thank you!...I had not thought about it from your perspective. You are applying Biblical principle to daily living and it was delightful to read about your insight. The main issue I have always looked at first is the value the candidates place on human life in comparison to the Bible's message about the sanctity of it. Your thoughts add another dimmension to view the candidates and make a choice based on what pleases God.
Much love,
Aunt Lini
Rick and Bubba for president!!!
Post a Comment