Jesus Was a Democrat (part one)

Thought I'd avoid any controversial topics today...

I'm kidding. Of course that's a pretty inflammatory heading. And I don't really even mean it. I don't mean to suggest that Jesus really belonged to the Democratic Party. It didn't even exist until 2,000 years after he was on Earth. And besides, Jesus had plenty of opportunity to get into politics if he'd wanted to. Satan tempted him with political power, and the people on Palm Sunday wanted to make him a king, but he eschewed both offers, making it pretty clear that Jesus wasn't much interested in politics. But I do have a serious point here, one that's been percolating in my brain for three or four years now. I have so much to say about this topic, in fact, that I doubt I can cover it in a single blog entry, but I do want to cover it, so I plan on making several entries about it, at least three.

It all began, as I said, maybe three or four years ago. Lisa and I decided to join a small group Bible Study that was occurring regularly at the house of a friend of Lisa. There were maybe a total of six couples in this Bible study. I forget what book of the Bible we were studying, to be honest, and I forget most of the conversations that were occurring. I remember that the whole thing lasted about an hour and a half, with about 60 minutes of praying, reading, and conversation, and about 30 minutes of socializing afterward. What I remember more than anything, though, was one of the husbands. I don't want to use his real name, as I honestly have no idea who--if anyone--reads this blog and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. So I just now googled most popular boy names for 1968 (my birth year) and I found that "Michael" was number one. So "Michael" it is.

Anyway, as I was saying, what I remember most about this Bible study was Michael. And what I remember about Michael was his brutish, bullish sense of surety coupled with an extreme conservative viewpoint. It was like this guy had swallowed a Jerry Falwell book or memorized all of the transcripts from all of the Focus on the Family broadcasts. Everything that came out of his mouth was Christian Right, Christian Right. Christian Right.

We only went to two or three of these Bible Study sessions before I told Lisa that I couldn't take Michael anymore, but some of the typical lines that came out of his mouth during those sessions were statements like these:

"The problem with society today is that the liberal media is trying every way possible to demean Christianity while promoting a gay and lesbian lifestyle in hopes of destroying all family values!"

"There are foolish people out there who honestly believe this godless science hogwash that the world is over 4,000 years old, oblivious to the fact that Satan himself may have put that fossil evidence in the ground to fool people and draw them into the fires of hell!"

"It's a fact--an absolute fact--that all Muslims see Christians as blasphemers, and that the Koran demands that Muslims kill and/or conquer all Christians! And that's why we're in Iraq! To stop the Christian killers!"

And notice how I put an exclamation point at the end of every one of these statements. That's because that's how Michael said them! There was no way someone could politely disagree with him. Any disagreement was going to immediately escalate into an argument. So I sat there pretty much staring at my shoes. And to be honest, I don't think I could have argued toe to toe with him anyway. Because while he was blasting out these fantastically complex and ludicrous statements, I was pretty much stuck on a single three word phrase that I kept repeating in my head over and over: "You're an idiot."

Anyway, I'm getting off point a little. Here's what I'm getting at: Because no one had the will or the gumption or the energy or whatever it would have taken to argue with Michael, he dominated the Bible Study. And because no one argued with his opinions, they felt like facts. And over cookies and soda during the social time on the last night that we attended, I remember one of the wives saying to Michael's wife, "I'm jealous of you. Your husband is so spiritual. He's a great Christian leader!"

That got under my skin. Lying in bed drifting off to sleep that night, I couldn't help but think about it: That's not a Christian, I told myself. That's not what a great Christian leader is. Being a Christian doesn't mean judging and dismissing people and being so cocksure of yourself that you never listen to anyone else. That's not Christian. It's just mean. And Jesus would NOT have chosen Michael as a disciple.

And Michael wasn't like any of the disciples. He reminded me more of the bad guys in the New Testament, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These were the cocksure judgers of the first century A.D., and if they'd had radio back then I'm pretty sure there would have been a Rush-Limbaugh-like conservative A.M. radio show hosted by a Pharisee.

And that's when it hit me: The Christian right has it all wrong. Jesus wasn't a conservative at all! Jesus was a liberal! The Christian right is on the wrong side of the fence!

In Matthew Chapter 15 Jesus said the following. He was talking to the Pharisees, but it occurred to me that his words could just as easily be directed at hatemongers and fear mongers of the Christian right:

7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me. 9They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

So that Bible study and that moment in bed were the impetus behind this whole conceit that I've been spinning around in my head.

And that's all I'm going to talk about today. The next time I'll get into the meat of why I actually believe that Jesus today would find more in common with people on the left than people on the right.