In The New York Times editorial, “And Jesus Said Unto Paul Ryan,” Nicholas Kristof attacks Paul Ryan on his Christianity. Kristof does this by carefully placing Ryan’s beliefs into a short narrative that features Jesus and Donald Trump. Kristof’s purpose is to show the irony behind Paul Ryan’s beliefs about healthcare and compare it to his faith. He writes in the form of a Bible story to prove to Christians that universal healthcare should stay in the United States. There are numerous allusions through this editorial-narrative. Kristof starts off by alluding to Mark 5:25 in the Bible by saying, “A woman who had been bleeding for 12 years came up behind Jesus and touched his clothes in hope of a cure.” This shows that even the Bible depicts …show more content…
In this story Jesus says that a Samaritan helped a beaten man on the street while a minister and rich Christian man walked away. The Samaritan nursed the beaten man back to health and let him ride his “donkey.” There are many symbols in this story. One of them is the rich man and the minister. Both of these people represent Paul Ryan because Ryan is a rich Christian man who refuses to help the poor. Another symbol is the donkey, which represents the Democratic party. Since the donkey supported the beaten man, it represents Obamacare, a Democratic healthcare plan that gives the poor affordable insurance. This all helps to prove that Paul Ryan is an unfaithful Christian and the Democrats are right about universal healthcare. This editorial-narrative may seem like a joke, but throughout it are the real beliefs of Paul Ryan. By stating facts about Ryan’s beliefs and his alleged Christianity, it allows Kristof to unveil the hypocrisy. Kristof begs the question, how is Paul Ryan a Christian if he has non-Christian beliefs about healthcare? With all the facts, the reader only has one choice when deciding the answer. Paul Ryan is just a bad Christian who hides behind faith to protect his
Her choices of metaphors are simplistic explanations providing the backdrop for the emotional and spiritual connection we seek in following Christ. The symbolic comparisons of Mary Magdalene, her relationship to Jesus, mirrors some of Julian of Norwich’s personal spiritual journey of prayerful contemplation while seeking intimacy in her relationship to God.
In “Sicko,” Michael Moore presents the flaws of America’s health care system that has been in continuous debate for many years. Despite the government’s obligation to help people, there are nearly 46 million Americans without any health care coverage, because they either are not able to support such costs or have been rejected by the health insurance companies. Thus, Moore claims that because America’s current health care system is incompetent and morally corrupt, the federal government should provide universal health care for all citizens, since America’s health care companies do not consider the rights of American citizens and make fraudulent decisions to make profit. Throughout his film, he also uses ethos, logos, and pathos to highlight the necessity of America’s private health care system to be replaced with universal health care.
The author commences the article with a description of the idea that Republican Party leaders have aspirations for Ted Cruz to be “the only hope in stopping Donald Trump’s march,” only to proceed by saying, “…the only candidate who causes as much heartburn among party elites as the billionaire businessman, if not more” (3-4). This opening establishes a negative connotation about the Republican party, and an unappreciable mood regarding the party’s forerunners. This exemplifies the author’s biased, liberal point-of-view, as she hammers her opposition’s candidates, with unsupported claims. Pace progresses to ad-hominously refer to Cruz as an “uncompromising conservative” who is “a colleague focused more on raising his own profile than achieving policy wins that benefit the party” (33-36). These allegations diverge
Wright, N. T. Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters. New York: HarperOne, 2011. Print.
In “Still Clinging to Truth” writer Carol Iannone published on November 16, 2016; he starts off the paper strong stating something President Obama had said about people about people who live in the Rust Belt. He then goes into stating the claims of the article about the First and Second Amendments, and in what way these issues have arisen and become more predominant in American culture today. He gives facts about in what manner Christians have been targeted by people and the Government and been called hate-full and bigots for their beliefs. He also goes into exactly how people who follow the Christian should change their beliefs so that people who are dissimilar in the homosexual facet can still be part of the church and in what manner different
In the early years of 2009 to 2010 the political process pushed health care through legislation led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Health care and government, 2013). This process was extraordinarily tiring, as many defenders of the bills passing were present. Many congressional members “dug their heels in”, and wanted to slow down the process even more as confusion about the bill was posed (Health care and government, 2013). Despite opposition by many sides of the American people, a Democrat-dominated House of Representatives passed the bill and the Affordable Care Act was signed into action on March 21, 2010 (Hogberg, 2013). Indeed, all three branches of government were instrumental with the passing the Affordable Care Act into place.
Ted Cruz is a Republican politician. Cruz is a very conservative politician who went to Harvard University to become a lawyer before going into politics. In the year 2000, Cruz “served as an advisor on the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush” (Mead). In 2013, Cruz became the senator of Texas and is currently running for president. “Cruz has become better known for his speeches and tactics than for creating legislation.” Cruz delivered a 21 hour long speech of his opposition on Obamas healthcare to cut funding and which encouraged the government shutdown of 2013. Cruz is also very religious and has clearly stated his beliefs. One of those beliefs is that “marriage should be between a man and a woman” (Mead). Clearly Cruz goes against
The author identifies some of the federal and state legislators that are also opposed to the Medicaid expansion in the writer’s district. US Senator John Cornyn says that the Obamacare Medicaid expansion program is formed to be wasteful, fraudulent, and abusive to the nation (Cornyn, 2010). According to US Senator Cornyn, “The $3.4 trillion federal taxpayers spend on the Medicaid program is a target for waste, fraud, and abuse. Instead of fixing these problems, the President’s new health care overhaul includes the largest expansion of the broken Medicaid program since its creation in 1965: it’s only going to get worse from here” (John Cornyn, 2010).
“From the very beginning…. Obama’s message was not that the law would result in higher premiums, but better coverage. It was that the law would lower premiums, end of story” (Roy). Yet another promise has found itself broken after the ACA came into the sunlight of reality. “His $1 trillion in tax increases [hit] the middle class hard…” Mitt Romney said, “… in the health care system I envision, costs will be brought under control not because a board of bureaucrats decrees it but because everyone- providers, insurers, and patients –has incentives to do it” Unfortunately, that isn’t how it is. The nation is being forced into healthcare or being penalized for not joining the masses, because this plan will only work if there’s enough healthy people paying their newly doubled premiums regularly to help offset the expenses the unhealthy have right of the bat. “Back when Obamacare was being debated in Congress, Democrats claimed that it was right-wing nonsense that premiums would go up under Obamacare” (Roy). It’s now obvious that right-wing was headed in the right direction, and the middle class was
The Frontline documentary, Obama’s Deal, tracks the course of Obama’s healthcare reform and the steps taken by the administration to get the bill passed. Healthcare was, and remains, one of the biggest platforms of the Obama administration and one of our nation’s greatest challenges. The film starts with Obama’s election into the White House in 2009. Rahm Emanuel, who had worked for the Clinton administration, was brought in to advise Obama on the reform. To win, Emanuel knew that Obama would have to move quickly as his campaign would be strongest at the beginning. But his crucial flaw was having Obama take a back seat on his own political agenda. Emanuel tried to change his mistakes from the Clinton administration’s healthcare failure, and
The book of Luke, found after the books Matthew and Mark, focuses on the ministry of Jesus Christ but it also gives us a look into His birth and growth in totality. In this chapter we see a historical account of some of the journeys that Christ experienced. It is important to keep in mind that the Bible and all of its books do serve as historical accounts but each book is unique in the fact that they incorporate a theological timeline. The Bible is, conceivably, the most important book that has ever been written. It gives the world eyewitness accounts to historical events that helped not only shaped a region of the world but the whole entire world. It is nearly impossible to go through some formal societal education and have never once read a part of the bible or have heard a story that adapts from the stories within the bible. The bible has helped formed institutions, associations and so much more. By reading the Gospel of Luke we are truly reading what is meant for us to read as Christians. The principal plot in the book of Luke is the life of Jesus Christ, his sacrifice, His ability to beat death and remain perfect as the son of GOD despite being human as well. Jesus is seen as the perfect savior for humans in the book of Luke. Luke not only gives multiple examples of the power of Jesus but also it gives us a look at The Lord’s triumph over temptation. Luke also depicts Jesus as a man/GOD who had a very deep concentration on people and relationships. The book of Luke gives Jesus a loving characteristic but doesn’t shy away from showing that at times Jesus got angry too. Jesus showed a great deal of compassion to the sick, those in pain, the poor, and unambiguously the sinful. Jesus had genuine love for everyone. Throughout this...
The church has a problem. The eternally relevant message with which she has been entrusted no longer readily finds a willing ear. According to Henderson, the solution lies in first understanding how our world thinks and then, beginning where people are at, bring them to see "the functional relevance for their lives of the actual relevance of our message". In high school speech classes, we were taught to "know your audience." As a careless high schooler, I didn't really care what she meant, but it eventually made sense (once I actually decided to think about it). You wouldn't use sock puppets to explain math to accountants; you wouldn't use in-depth power-point presentations to explain math to first graders. With this in mind, why do many Americans still try to talk about Jesus using the methods used thirty years ago? Why do we use Christian "jargon" to explain Christianity to those outside the faith? Henderson contends that modern American Christians must change their approach to sharing the faith in order to fit modern America. The pattern of Henderson's book is straightforward: he examines a particular aspect/mindset/value of modern Americans; he then gives ideas about how a Christian might share Words of Eternal Life with such an American. Henderson's writing is both straightforward and enjoyable. He gets right to the heart of the American mindset, then illustrates it with descriptions from scenes from popular movies, personal anecdotes, jokes, etc. In all, Henderson does the modern Christian a great service in writing "Culture Shift." Jesus told Christians to tell others about him ("Go, therefore, and baptize all nations...") and Henderson can help us along the way through this book
By alluding to the bible, Obama is able to better connect with the families of the victims, as many of the victims were explicitly described as being religious. In knowing that the republican party often incorporates Christian values into policies, Obama also uses religion to bridge the gap between the republican and democratic members of the audience by taking into consideration conservative values, while using quotes that were widely accessible, as both of the references he used were taken from the Old Testament, which is a point of reference for all Judeo-Christian religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) thereby facilitating the acceptance of his points in a very diverse audience. Furthermore, an important message in the book of Job, which Obama specifically referenced, is that God may put his people through trial, but there is always a bigger meaning behind the evils in the world, and evil should never make you doubt your belief. This can easily be projected to the circumstances at the time the speech was
Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times, is very straightforward in his expression of his opinions in his writing. Kristof's awareness of his audience and his connection with them allows him to present his ideas and opinions in a way that is compelling and understandable. Kristof is sure to tie in every detail and end his arguments by addressing his audience specifically. Although Nicholas Kristof creates many effective arguments through his use of witness accounts and real-life situations, his over employment of pathos leads his audience to question his objectivity due to his emotional connection to his argument.
The story “Nipple Jesus” is a work of contemporary British fiction by Nick Hornby. This story presents many important themes such as religion and sexuality, illusion, and intolerance. However, perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the story is the character exploration and development of the narrator, Dave.