I did some research, as is always a good idea, and you're wrong, unless you don't consider Brazil, Mexico, Russia, The United Kingdom and a handful of other industrialized countries industrialized.
Well, no, I don't consider Mexico or Brazil industrialized. I've been to Mexico, it's certainly not industrialized. Have you ever been to either country?
Russia is unique. Parts of it are industrialized -- the urban areas; but there are rural areas of the former USSR that still don't have electricity. I'd have to say if you don't have electricity everywhere, you're not industrialized.
And I'd like to see where you get your stats, because I looked it up again, and still see that the US is behind the UK.
25. United Kingdom (5.4 deaths per thousand)
34. United States (7.1 deaths per thousand)
72. Russia (16.5 deaths per thousand)
If anyone's interested, here's a few more countries that rank better than the US (lower infant mortality), from
>>>THIS<<< website:
1. Singapore 2.6
8. Czech Republic (and they're still recovering from that civil war!) 4.1
10. Slovenia 4.2
20. Israel 5.1
28. Brunei 5.6
However, I will concede that I had not checked the data when I first posted, and was going on what I knew from 30 years ago. I am glad to see that we are slowly moving up the ranks.
I will also assume, for the sake of discussion, that we are to interpret the words of Jesus to mean that we are to want the government to confiscate and reallocate our assets, and apply them to His teachings, which is an entirely different subject.
You should NOT assume that. I don't think God will punish someone more or less based on what his or her government does, and that's basically my point. People are saying, "Oh, God's gonna punish us because the US does this and that." I'm saying there are far worse things the US has done, and far more things we need to be concerned about that the US hasn't done and probably won't ever do, than worrying about what two people you've never met before are doing in the privacy of their own hot tub.
If the U.S. decided to give every one of its citizens a free chicken in every pot and 2 pounds of cheese per month, and people were still dying of preventable diseases, obviously, something is still wrong. Whatever the cause, it is not being addressed by "the government."
Think of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Do you think the robbed and beaten man cared how much tax money went into crime prevention in that particular area? Did knowing that his government hired more police make his wounds less life-threatening? Perhaps that's why the saducee and pharisee passed him on the other side of the road, because they had already paid their taxes, and they figured it was the government's job to take care of him.
The Samaritan knew better.
I agree with you, there are a lot of reasons for a high infant mortality rate (and if it's lower in the US than it was, PRAISE THE LORD!!!!) pre-natal care is one, and yes, some of the women who have miscarriages had access to free or low-cost pre-natal care and simply chose not to use it, but that is the exception rather than the norm. Most of the time, in cases of infant mortality, the woman did not have access to the pre-natal care. I'm not advocating for a government-mandated program, but offering MORE low-cost options would reduce that rate. And it doesn't have to be tax-payer supported. Every man, woman, and child who is protesting outside a Planned Parenthood should ALSO be donating to organizations that offer low-cost or no-cost pre-natal care. If they don't, they are hypocrites.
The biggest issue, which you didn't even mention, was education. It's sad that young mothers aren't even getting basic education in how to take care of themselves in those 9 months. It's something that takes a little bit of investment, but the pay-back is soooooooo worth it, don't you think?
As for drugs, yes, I know that is one of the many causes of infant mortality. So now you have to ask yourself: why are women abusing drugs? What are we doing that causes these women to think the only thing to turn to is drugs? We are NOT spreading the Gospel, that's for sure.
And that is ABSOLUTELY not the government's job.
The whole point is, God really doesn't give a rip about the government. The government can come out and say that the only True God is the "flying spaghetti monster." God's reaction to that would be "Fine, who are you going to worship?"
It's still YOUR decision whom to worship. If you choose to worship the flying spaghetti monster just because the government tells you to, God's gonna be disappointed. And no, you don't get to say, "but, but, but, the government told me..." Jesus is your advocate, but even he's gonna have trouble defending that one in court.
God is going to judge YOU not on what your government does, or on what Chick-Fil-A does, or on what Nestle does, or on what President Obama does.
The Good News, is that the judgement has already been made, and that was Christ Jesus, who has redeemed us by his blood.
I'm not saying that boycotting a company or business, or voting one way or another, is not a good thing every now and then. I'm inviting people to look at the big picture. God doesn't care about what brand of cereal you eat, or what Chicken sandwich you bought. It is not what goes into a man that defiles him.
