Budget Cutting Blasphemy

I grew up in a conservative religious household where the Bible was read every evening after dinner. Despite my childish itchiness to be doing anything else but sitting and listening, the readings had the effect my parents intended. There’s hardly a major issue I encounter that doesn’t set off some deep Biblical connection.

The passage that looms large for me in the current discussions about cutting government-based programs to meet the debt-limit is Leviticus 19:32;

“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.”

Why this verse? Current proposals to cut the budget will hurt the 5 million seniors in America who face the threat of hunger. Funding for the Older Americans Act nutrition programs has not kept up with need or inflation, and proposed funding levels will mean 36 million fewer meals served to low income, frail seniors. The proposed 22 percent funding cut to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program will mean that about 150,000 low-income seniors will lose food. The proposal to change what was the food stamp program into a block grant program to states and to reduce the funding by $127 billion over 10 years will cut benefits to the 200,000 seniors who qualify.

Is this any way to honor the gray head? The writer of Leviticus states that honoring the aged is equal to fearing God. For those of us who still take scripture seriously, Congress, acting on our behalf, is proposing blasphemy.

Lest you think the writer of Leviticus was way off base, be assured that he or she stood firmly within the tradition of the Fifth of the Ten Commandments:  

“Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

A question to the budget-cutters who profess faith within the Biblical tradition: If our actions dishonor the gray heads of our fathers and mothers, will our days in this God-blessed land be shortened?