About being selfish...

One of my Facebook friends posted a status about her political views that I responded to. And after responding I decided to repost my comment here, because I expressed some things I feel are important. Her point was that while she may be an Obama supporter, she's tired of being treated as if she agrees with everything he does. And she tried to point out some of the many ways in which she feels the big picture is flawed. She made the comment that "we are a selfish nation." And this was what I posted....

"'We are a selfish nation.' That is so true; and what people won't recognize is, we have been that way from the beginning in spite of the many good qualities our forefathers possessed and attempted to instill, and religion has done NOTHING to change that. In fact, it has exacerbated it in many ways. I know many people who argue that without Christianity we would not have civilization anywhere; but that simply isn't true. When you define "civilization" as a culture based on Christian principles and "Christianity" as a religion based on the Old Testament, you warp the very definition of both from the outset. It also warps definitions when you define "selfishness" as needing something you do not have access to, or as believing the government should not dole out charity. There are many reasons to want an inherently capitalist government out of the charity business; the first and foremost being that it is for them a BUSINESS, and they make a ton of money from it. I know many people who recognize these issues and form their opinions accordingly. It's the ones who deny them I have a problem with. You don't have to agree with me, but you owe it to everyone to be informed about your opinion."