When Christians identify with the Republican Party, they are committed to serving the interests of the rich, the comfortable and the powerful who completely control that party. That party works against Jesus' Liberal teaching in favor of the poor and the downtrodden, and serves the selfishishness and greed of the rich and the power-hungry. Instead of being concerned, as Jesus was, with the sins of people with great power over the lives of others, Republican Conservative Christians are promoting a form of religion that has little to do with what Jesus preached, namely one obsessed with what "little people" do in their private lives. While Jesus was concerned about what people of power did to little people, Republican Christians promote a version of "Christianity" that is obsessed with what ordinary people do with their "private parts". It might well be called "Faith of Our Genitals".
Jesus of Nazareth showed little if any such concerns. Yet today's Republican "Christian Conservatives" claim to speak for Christ on the basis of what they imagine Jesus would say and do about our world today. Since Jesus hasn't spoken on his own behalf for 20 centuries, these people treat Jesus like an inanimate object, a puppet in effect, and they claim to speak for him . That is how the world learned that :
Jesus disapproved for years of organs and pianos (because everybody assumed these instruments had been created by the devil for use in saloons and brothels).
Jesus disapproved of ice cream Sundaes (which is why this popular Sunday treat had to have its name changed).
Jesus disapproved of playing cards, drinking any and all alcoholic beverages, dancing, singing, wearing bathing suits, viewing motion pictures, reading most books.
Jesus disapproved of masturbation.
Jesus disapproved of family planning or birth-control.
Jesus disapproved of homosexuality.
Jesus disapproved of abortion.
but Jesus didn't condemn slavery, or segregation, because good bible-belt scholars could find passages to use to defend those practices!
and Jesus didn't condemn the invasion and destruction of the Americas by the "civilized", "Christians" of Europe, because they didn't see anything in the Gospels that said anything about "America" or "Indians".
We Liberal Christians, on the other hand, base our claim to know what Jesus would say and do about the world today on what the Gospels tell us that Jesus actually said and did in his day. To really conserve the teaching of Jesus, you must know precisely what that teaching was, and not allow anyone who came after Jesus tell you otherwise.Here is the way Jesus defined himself :
{Luke 4:18}
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me;
he has appointed me
to preach Good News to the poor;
he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted
and to announce that the blind shall see,
that captives shall be released
and the downtrodden shall be freed
(i.e. liberated) from their oppressors."
Ever since the "conversion" of the pagan Emperor Constantine, in 312 A.D., Christianity has been embraced by the rich and the powerful. But as part of the bargain, Christ's "Good News to the poor" has been twisted to mean that the brokenhearted, the captives and, the downtrodden would all have to wait for "the next life" for relief. And anyone who suggested otherwise was a troublemaker, a "rabble-rouser", a "heretic" or, more recently, a "Communist".
In response to the question, "Sir, which is the most important command in the laws of Moses?" Jesus explicitly identified his and the Bible's highest priorities :
{ Matthew 22:36-40 }
"This is the first and greatest commandment: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.'
The second most important is similar: 'Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.'
All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others."
History has shown that despite the apparent simplicity of these commandments, loving one's neighbor isn't as simple or as easy as it sounds.
While so-called "Christian Conservatives" are fond of saying : "Charity begins at home," that is about as far from the teaching of Jesus and the Bible as one can get. In his "preview of the Last Judgement", Jesus spells out what HE means
by "loving" one's neighbor, what it entails, and in the process, he makes it
clear that loving neighbors who are hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, sick,
imprisoned, or otherwise afflicted is what matters to him, not loving those
in, or close to, our own families, neighborhoods, or country -- which as he points out elsewhere everyone does naturally. --
{ Matthew 25 }
"When I, the Messiah, shall come in glory, and all the angels with me, then I
shall sit upon my throne of glory. And all the nations shall be gathered
before me. And I will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep
from the goats, and place the sheep at my right hand, and the goats at
my left.
Then I, the King, shall say to
those at my right, "Come, blessed of my Father, into
the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.
For I was hungry and you fed me;
I was thirsty and you gave me water;
I was a stranger and you invited me into your homes;
naked and you clothed me; sick and in prison,
and you visited me."
Then these righteous ones will reply,
"Sir, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you?
Or thirsty and give you anything to drink?
Or a stranger, and help you?
Or naked, and clothe you?
When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?"
And I, the King, will tell them,
"When you did it to these my brothers you were doing it to me!"
Then I will turn to those on my left and say,
"Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his demons.
For I was hungry and you wouldn't feed me;
thirsty, and you wouldn't give me anything to drink;
a stranger, and you refused me hospitality;
naked, and you wouldn't clothe me;
sick, and in prison, and you didn't visit me."
Then they will reply,
"Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison,
and not help you?"
And I will answer,
"When you refused to help the least of these my brothers,
you were refusing help to me." And they shall
go away into eternal punishment;
but the righteous into everlasting life."
[ For those tempted to make an issue of "right" vs, "left",
keep in mind that it is the left side of a courtroom who
are at the judge's "right hand".]
While "Christian Conservatives" espouse the idea that riches are "blessings" from God, Christ proclaimed that it is the very opposite that HE considers blessed:
{Matthew 5}
"When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain;
and his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak,
and he taught them, saying:
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"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for
in the same way they persecuted the prophets who went before you."
Conservatives sometimes quote "Blessed are the poor in spirit" to poor people as reason for them not to seek relief from their poverty (at the expense of those more prosperous than themselves). But if Jesus considered poverty itself to be desirable, why would he have urged those afflicted with wealth to share that 'affliction' with those not so afflicted? Isn't it much more likely that when Jesus said "Blessed are the poor in spirit", he meant blessed are those who are content with a minimum of material possessions, in contrast to those who are never content with what they have, but are always trying to accumulate more and more, and fighting every effort made to tax them for the benefit of the poor and the needy?
In another of his powerful parables, God sends the
man "blessed with riches" (in the eyes of Conservatives) to hell,
while God sends the poor "loser", Lazarus, to heaven,
( just because the one was rich in this life, and the other was poor!)
{ Luke 16 }
"One day Lazarus, a diseased beggar, was laid at the door of a rich man's
house. As he lay there longing for scraps from the rich man's table,
the dogs would come and lick his open sores. Finally the beggar
died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham in the place of the
righteous dead.
The rich man also died and was buried, and his soul went into hell.
There, in torment, he saw Lazarus in the far distance with Abraham.
'Father Abraham,' he shouted, 'have some pity! Send Lazarus over here if
only to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am
in anguish in these flames.' But Abraham said to him, 'Son, remember
that during your life-time you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had
nothing. So now he is here being comforted and you are in anguish."
 Is this parable relevant only to rich vs. poor individuals? Or does it relate to the rich Christian nations vs. the many extremely poor nations of this world? What if God cares enough about the multitude of poor people in this world to hold us "Christians" with vastly more wealthy than the rest of world responsible for our neglect of those unlucky enough to have been born on the "other side of the tracks" ?
. . . "And besides, there is a great chasm separating us, and anyone wanting to
come to you from here is stopped at its edge; and no one over there can
cross to us.'
Then the rich man said, 'O Father Abraham, then please send him to
my father's home -- for I have five brothers -- to warn them about this
place of torment lest they come here when they die.' But Abraham
said, 'The Scriptures have warned them again and again. Your brothers
can read them any time they want to.' The rich man replied, 'No, Father
Abraham, they won't bother to read them. But if someone is sent to
them from the dead, then they will turn from their sins.' But Abraham
said, 'If they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't listen
even though someone rises from the dead.'
Note that despite the remarkable similarity between Jesus' parable about the rich man and Charles Dickens' parable about Scrooge, Dickens is far more
optimistic about the prospects for the repentance and salvation of the
rich than is Jesus. In contrast to Scrooge, whom Dickens
portrays as being moved by the ghostly apparitions to repentance
and redemption, the Gospel holds out no such hope for its wealthy
villains. On the contrary, the Gospel insists :
"If they won't listen to Moses and the prophets,
they won't listen even though someone rises from the dead."
When Jesus was asked to clarify what the second of the two great commandments was all about, he explained in one of his the most important parables, that action speaks louder than words, and that GOD is not fooled by professions of faith, nor by what may appear lack of faith. What GOD appreciates and expects in people is a good heart which moves one to "love others as one does oneself", and to "do unto others what one would have others do unto them". Jesus went out of his way, in his "Parable of the Good Samaritan" to point out that GOD often finds what he is looking for, not in churchy people who hold the right "beliefs", but in "non-believers" who do the right "works".
Whoever called this the parable of "the Good Samaritan",
may have missed the point, because Jesus didn't just
highlight the genuineness of the one non-believer.
He contrasted that charitable behavior to the phoniness of the two religious leaders. This lesson might better be referred to as "the parable of the Faithless Churchmen"?
{ Luke 10 }
One day an expert on Moses' laws came to test Jesus' orthodoxy by asking him
this question: "Teacher, what does a man need to do to live forever in heaven?"
Jesus replied, "What does Moses' law say about it?" "It says," he replied, "that you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor just as much as you love yourself." "Right!" Jesus told him. "Do this and you shall live!"
But, wanting to justify himself, the man asked, "Which neighbors must I love?"
And Jesus replied with an illustration:
"A Jew going on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by bandits.
They stripped him of his clothes and money, and beat him up and
left him lying half dead beside the road. By chance a priest
came along; and when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other
side of the road and passed him by. A temple--assistant
walked over and looked at him lying there, but then went on.
But a despised Samaritan* (a heretic) came along, and when he saw him,
he felt deep pity. Kneeling beside him the Samaritan soothed
his wounds with medicine and bandaged them. Then he put the man
on his donkey and walked along beside him till they came to an inn, where
he nursed him through the night. The next day he handed the
innkeeper two silver coins and told him to take care of the man.
"If his bill runs higher than that," he said, " I'll pay the difference
the next time I am here."
"Now which of these three," Jesus asked, "would you say was a neighbor
to the bandit's victim?" The man replied, "The one who showed him some pity."
Then Jesus said, "Yes, now go and do the same."
* The Jewish leaders showed just how much they despised Samaritans when they use that name to insult Jesus in { John 8:48 } :The Jews answered him, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?"
The most Conservative part of our country is the so-called "Bible Belt". These conservative Christians have proven time and time again by their actions that the only people they want to have in "their neighborhoods", in their schools, and in their social gatherings are those who look, sound and act like themselves. They even object to people who are unlike themselves from being allowed to immigrate into "their country", a country which they stole from its native Americans, and made what it is today with the unpaid labor of millions of Africans whom they forced to migrate here from foreign lands.
It is no accident that the so-called "Bible Belt" is where, for centuries, human slavery of dark-skinned people was practiced and defended to the death. Even after they had thrown away thousands of their youth on a senseless and immoral civil war, the Christian Conservatives of that time and place didn't repent. Instead even some of their clergy engaged in Ku Klux Klan terrorism and cruel segregation to keep their former slaves as close to slavery as they could. For all their talk of the Bible, whenever they are forced to choose between Conservatism and Christianity, these people are more likely to hold onto the tenets of Conservatism than those of Christ. Their great-grandparents enslaved the "darkies". Their parents segregated and terrorized them. And now that today's Republican party is proving itself so much better than today's Democratic Party at keeping blacks in their place, they are switching to the party that is doing the best job of restricting civil rights and affirmative action, and of resegregating America's grade schools and high schools through "education vouchers" and the like. It is just as absurd for today's Republican Party to claim to be "the party of Christ", as it is for it to claim to be "the party of Lincoln".
While Jesus warned that it was "almost impossible"
for the "haves" who ignore the "have nots" of this world to be saved, "Christian Conservative" preachers have gained the enthusiastic and generous support of the rich and the powerful by teaching the very opposite of what Christ taught -- which is why the rich and the powerful are only too happy to give the "Religious Right" all the money they need to endlessly and loudly promote their bastardized version of Christianity over the air waves, the internet, and in print, and at election time to distribute 70 million copies of their "Christian Voter Guides" -- which while deceitfully claiming to be "non-partisan" -- is part and parcel of the Republican Party's propaganda machine.
The wealthy underwrite Conservative causes
like the "Christian Coalition"
precisely because these groups
don't preach what Jesus preached !
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{ Matthew 19:16, 21-26 }
Someone came to Jesus with this question: "Good Master, what must I do to have eternal life?
[ Jesus told him that he must begin by obeying the ten commandments. But, then...]
"If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything you have
and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure
in heaven; and come, follow me." But when the
young man heard this, he went away sadly, for he was very rich.
Without walking away, most "Christians" just tune out
this teaching of Jesus these days, and pretend to follow Christ
without really doing so.
. . . Then Jesus said to his disciples, "It is almost impossible
for a rich man to get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
I say it again -- it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter the Kingdom of God! When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, "Then who can be saved?" And Jesus replied, "For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible."
{ Luke 16:13-15}
" no slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God."
For Jesus, as for many other great prophets of the Bible,
the pursuit of riches and the pursuit of salvation are so
incompatible that one cannot choose one
without turning away from the other.
And the more riches one possesses the harder
it is to choose salvation, because it requires the
repudiation of those riches. Any true follower of
Christ who sees today's "Religious Right" inviting the
wealthy to come into their churches, to bring all their money
in with them, to share it generously -- not with the poor, but --
with the churches and their clergy, knows that there is
something very wrong with this picture. When they
see people claiming to be "men of God" sharing the hopes
and dreams of the Republican Party of reducing or eliminating
services for the poor, so as to lower taxes on the well-to-do,
true Christians (and Jews) recognize that this so-called
"Christian Coalition" is no marriage made in heaven,
but an unholy alliance, designed to advance
not GOD's cause but the G.O.P.'s.
The multi-millionaire founder
and president of the "Christian Coalition" Pat Robertson,
who also owns the 700 Club and the "Christian Broadcasting
Network", wasn't a particularly religious Baptist until he
met a Dutch "mystic" named Cornelius Vanderbreggen, who
taught him that a man of God can be rich. "God is generous,
not stingy," Vangerbreggan told Robertson, as they dined
at an elegant hotel. "He wants you to have the best."
Given the choice between the
Gospel according to Jesus and the Gospel according to
Robertson and Vanderbreggan, Conservatives don't hesitate
to embrace the one that tells them they are saved just
the way they are, no matter how wealthy they are, or
how much misery they are able to ignore in the world around them.
That certainly wasn't the way those closest to Jesus understood his teaching. (according to the Acts of the Apostles, Ch.2 , 44 :) " All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need."{ Luke 14:33-35}
So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; they throw it away. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!
{Luke 12:15-21}
And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."
Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?'
Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul,
'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat,
drink, be merry.'
But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you.
And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'
So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves
but are not rich toward God." "Yes, every man is a fool
who gets rich on earth but not in heaven. Sell what you
have and give to those in need.
This will fatten your purses in heaven!
And the purses of heaven have no rips or holes in them.
Your treasures there will never disappear; no thief can steal them;
no moth can destroy them. Wherever your treasure is,
there your heart and thoughts will also be."
Jesus vs. Guns :
Another way in which Republican Conservatives espouse the opposite of Christ is in their love of and reliance on tools of death & war.
I once saw a gun lover's site pull the following words of Jesus out of their context to support his position: " the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one."
The context of that passage, however, shows how dishonest that use of the verse is:
Luke 22: 36-38 He said to them, "But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me, 'And he was counted among the lawless'; and indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled." They said, "Lord, look, here are two swords." He replied, "It is enough."
In Jesus' day of course there were no guns, but can anyone doubt that if he were alive today, Jesus would be warning us about guns & bombs rather than "swords", as in Matthew 26, 52 : " Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword ."
And who was the fulfullment of this prophecy, if not Jesus:
Isaiah 2:3-4
"For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
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Jesus Christ was
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