In earlier posts I explained the situation that first got me thinking about where Jesus would fit in to today's political atmosphere, and I then described the ways in which Jesus's teaching could either be identified as liberal or conservative in nature.
So what's my point in all of this? Do I seriously mean to suggest that Jesus, if alive today, would be a registered member of the Democratic Party?
Of course not. As I mentioned earlier, Jesus was very clear that He wasn't much interested in politics. If He'd been interested in a political revolution, in fact, He either wouldn't have been crucified by the Romans and Jewish leaders or He would have been crucified much sooner, depending upon how successful the Jewish leaders thought He would have been. I guess, though, that's a blog entry for another day.
If I'm not trying to say that Jesus literally WAS a Democrat, then, what was the point of these three blog entries?
Good question. What I think I'm getting at (You need to understand that I'm sort of figuring this out as I type--it was WHY I was typing in the first place) is that, while Jesus wasn't a Democrat, He wasn't a Republican, either. And Republicans don't have a monopoly on Christian ethics.
That might be an obvious statement for some people, but if you are one of those people who see it as an obvious statement, know that not everybody feels that way. For many evangelical Christians that I know, the idea that Jesus would be anything but a Republican is ridiculous. And the idea that--and I seriously believe this--Jesus was actually a LIBERAL and not a CONSERVATIVE, blows those people away! And it's actually made some of them quite angry with me. Which I think is good for them.
And here's why I think those people are confused: because they misunderstand what many liberals believe.
Many conservatives, at least the most radical of the conservatives, believe that all liberals want is the absolute destruction of all ideals and values that have come before. And I guess there are some liberals who would desire that. The anarchists certainly would, and I would think that anarchists would align themselves with liberals more than they would with conservatives. But anarchists aren't the only type of liberals.
Many United States liberals don't see themselves as destroyers of past ideals at all. Rather, to these liberals it is the conservatives who have so perverted the original ideals of the constitution that they no longer recognize those ideals and those ideals no longer look like anything that the founding fathers intended. These liberals see themselves not as destroyers but as correctors! Their hope is that they can restore the intentions of the founding fathers in the changes they would like made.
Jesus was the same way. As I mentioned earlier, Jesus stated that "I have not come to abolish [the Laws or the Prophets] but to fulfill them." It is my contention that Jesus saw the Pharisees and the other Jewish leaders of the time the same way that intelligent liberals today see conservatives, as well-meaning people who nevertheless have abandoned the spirit of the law in favor of the letter of the law. For the Democrats the "law" in question is the Consitution. For Jesus it was the law of the soul, but it's the same concept.
Jesus was NOT a Democrat, but He WAS a liberal.
So let that be the first point I'm trying to make with this trilogy of blog posts.
The second point is this: If Jesus were interested in politics in the 21st century United States, He WOULD be a Democrat.
The Democratic platform has more Christian ideals in it than does the Republican platform. The Democratic platform includes meeting the needs of the weakest in the community via universal health care, social security, and welfare. The Republicans would leave the weakest of our community to their own resources, a sort of Darwinian survival of the fittest strategy. The Democratic platform includes loving (or at least respecting the rights of) all people, no matter their beliefs or their sexual orientation or where their citizenship is. The Republicans can't say the same.
Of course, Jesus was pretty clear that He wanted everyone to be Christian and that He wanted people to follow God's Law, but He was always ready to give those people another chance, to forgive them when they were ready to ask for forgiveness. And I can't imagine that He would deny an immigrant the right to health care or the right to have their children educated just because the person was so anxious to come to this country that he couldn't wait to come legally.
What Godlike ideas to the Republicans have on their side? Tax cuts? Jesus wasn't interested in tax cuts. In Mathew Chapter 22, when confronted about whether or not Jews should pay taxes, Jesus asked whose head was on a coin. When He was told Casear's was on it, He said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's." Tax cuts weren't part of His policy!
What else? Gay marriage? As I mentioned before, the Bible clearly states that homosexuality is a sin, but it ain't Jesus who says this. And right or wrong, I can't believe that Jesus would treat homosexuals with the same vitriol and hatred with which the Christian right sometimes does.
What about abortion? Ah, finally, something real, something that the conservatives do have right and the liberals do have wrong. It's a powerful issue. Thousands of abortions are performed every year, and the Democrats are on the wrong side of this issue. And yes, it is an important issue, so much so that many Christians, including some I've talked to about the previous two blog entries, say that it's the number one issue that factors in to their choices on election day.
Which leads me to this question: Where has that gotten them? Roe versus Wade was decided in 1973. That was 35 years ago. In all that time there have been seven U.S. Presidents. Ford and Nixon were both fairly neutral in their stances regarding abortion, but since then Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II have all been vocal opponents to abortion, while Clinton was the lone advocate.
No, I didn't forget Carter. He's just hard to categorize. He said he personally condemned abortions and abhorred any abortion, but he was not in favor of a constitutional amendment to make abortions illegal. Years after his tenure as President, in 2005, he condemned the Democratic Party for its support of abortion. So he's (fittingly) a tough nut to crack.
My point, though, is this: Of those 35 years since Roe v. Wade, only 8 of the years had a man in the White House who was a vehement supporter of abortion rights. The remaining years saw Presidents who were either against abortion or ambivalent. But after 35 years, we're no closer to ending abortion in American than we ever were, and the reason why is that Congress is never going to put on the Supreme Court a judge they know has a political agenda regarding abortion. No matter what conservatives tell Christians, the next President is NOT going to appoint a judge who will see that Roe v. Wade is overturned. Eight years of President Bush should have proved that.
So Abortion alone should not be a factor when determining who a person is going to vote for as President. And unless a Senator or Representative promises to make it item number one on his/her agenda to end abortion via a Constitutional amendment, then it shouldn't be a factor in determining how to cast your vote in those offices, either. In the end, how a candidate (or a political party) feels about abortion is not going to impact any law, and thus should not be a reason for electing someone to a political office.
I guess to wrap it all up, what I'm getting at here is that I'm tired of being sheepish when I say I'm a supporter of this Democrat or that. It's not a sin against Christianity. Just a sin against the Christian Right.
And I fervently believe that the Christian Right is not truly Christian. It is a scam perpetrated by ultraconservatives to somehow convince naive Christians that their radical, liberal religion is consistent with conservative ideals. In many ways it is not, and I think some of the leaders of the Christian Right are going to be surprised when they meet Jesus. I think this warning from Jesus is for the leaders of the Christian Right:
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?'
Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'
--Mathew Chapter 7
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