Jesus or Joni? Comparing brands of compassion

At a recent Iowa town hall meeting, our Sen. Joni Ernst responded to a concerned woman who pleaded that “people would die” because of proposed health care cuts. Ernst callously smirked “We all are going to die.”

In a subsequent video, she said she would like to “sincerely [sarcastically] apologize” for assuming that everyone knew “we are all going to perish from the earth” and that the tooth fairy was not real.

She went on to say those who would like to see eternal and everlasting life were encouraged to embrace Jesus Christ.

So it raises the question, what would Jesus think of her health care cuts? We know of a number of instances where Jesus responded to people with health problems. We recall how he compassionately helped the leper, the paralyzed, and the blind.

So, imagine that, instead of Jesus, they met Joni Ernst. And when she saw the leper she said “Verily we’re all going to die, so quit being so distraught.”

And when she saw the paralyzed man, she said “I hate to break it to you, but you are going to perish anyway, so quit worrying about your disability.”

And when she saw the blind man, she said, “why be so concerned about your vision when, in the long run, it doesn’t matter?”

One can be grateful these folks met Jesus rather than Joni. Her brand of compassion seems far different from his.

Thankfully, while many of us may choose to “embrace” Jesus, we do not have to “embrace” Joni Ernst.