ABUSING THE BIBLE

Some conservatives have taken to quoting 2 Thessalonians 3:10, which reads

10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."

to justify their desire to drastically reduce or even eliminate food stamps to millions of poor people. This seems to be a misunderstanding of the real import of the passage, which is directed at those Christians who are neglecting their work because they believe in the imminent Second Coming of Christ. This is found in 2 exegeses of this passage, one by John Darby and the other by Matthew Henry.

Darby -

Christ Himself was waiting-sweet thought! They were to wait with Him, until the moment when His heart and the hearts of His own should rejoice together in their meeting.

It was this which they needed. On the one hand, they had believed that the dead saints would not be ready to go and meet the Lord; on the other, they had thought the day of the Lord already come. The enjoyment of the love of God, and peace of heart in waiting for Christ, was necessary for them.

This excitement into which they had been led had also betrayed itself in some among them by their neglect of their ordinary labors, " working not at all but being busybodies," intermeddling in the affairs of others.

Henry -

It is probable that these persons had a notion (by misunderstanding some passages in the former epistle) concerning the near approach of the coming of Christ, which served them for a pretence to leave off the work of their callings, and live in idleness. Note, It is a great error, or abuse of religion, to make it a cloak for idleness or any other sin.

There are many other commentaries on this passage, some which point out that Paul's statement is a reflection of a couple of popular Jewish sayings and others claiming that this passage is addressed to a particular problem among the Thessalonians.  One from John Calvin even uses the passage to condemn the mendicant orders of priests and monks. In any case, it's quite a stretch to apply this to SNAP benefits.

UPDATE: In 2007, I noted that Michael Medved (and Dennis Prager) have both abused a passage from Leviticus.