One of the most talked about aspects of Christianity is to love your neighbor as yourself, this was a command that came from Jesus to those who would follow him. When asked who is our neighbor he told them of the good samaritan who helped take care of the man who was attacked by thieves. Paying for him to be cared for and provided for, Jesus then iterates his point that the Samaritan showed mercy to the man, and that this is the example to follow. The idea is to be compassionate, and many people nowadays would say that to show mercy or have compassion means sacrificing of yourself to give to others. I prefer to think of having mercy in a different way, I do not view mercy as meaning that I have to cause myself distress or make my life harder to help others, but that instead I put myself in positions to help others. That instead of lifting up those who are less fortunate I would have to take away from myself and others, but rahter that we have the chance to give to those less fortunate. To give from our abundance willingly, and not to make it to where we are just as unfortunate as others. To be like Peter who when entering the temple told the beggar “Money and gold have I none, but that which I have I give freely, in the name of Jesus Christ get up and walk.” I think of helping others to mean to follow the old proverb “give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish you feed him for the rest of his life.” People right now want to take wealth from the working middle class and offer it to those who cannot or do not work, and say that because we do not want these taxes we lack compassion, but this is not the case. Instead of offering free money, offer a solution that enables the middle class to not be forced to pay and therefore lack money themselves but instead let them help of their abundance willingly, and help those who cannot find work to find ways to provide for themselves. Even Paul would not eat for free, but insured some form of service was rendered by him and his companions, this is true mercy, to help those who are unable to provide for themselves to find a way, like the man at the temple who needed to be healed, or the man from the proverb who needed to be taught how to fish. Mercy is helping by your own willingness and your abundance to lift up those who need it, not to provide for those who cannot simply becuase they refuse to, and certainly not by taking away from those who have some, but not much. As a conservative who opposses programs such as forced healthcare to pay for those who cannot afford it, and other programs it is not a lack of compassion that deters me from these programs, but rather it is becuase of my compassion I oppose them. Too many people out there have the capacity to work, but becuase these programs enable them to not work they refuse to, causing individuals who do work to receive less of their own money, which prevents them from being able to help their nieghbors who may need it, in favor of those who simply refuse to work. I have seen this first hand on many occassions, and it is crippling the American economy, and taking away all wealth from the so called middle class.