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As for power and politics,
one of my favorite lines from Jesus
is when he was doing a meandering teaching – healing tour on the way to Jerusalem for the last time. Religious authorities, harassing him, suggested he go into hiding because “Herod is looking for you”. (Herod the non-Roman ruler under the Roman thumb, was not known for excercising democratic or humanitarian procedures very regularly.) Jesus says, in effect, “Go tell that skulking predator where I am, and what my agenda and schedule are. Don’t forget to mention that I’ll be in Jerusalem in three days”.
That’s not the response of a man cowed by authority religious or political.
But “the common people heard him gladly,”
and he saw and heard them gladly, and loved them deeply, and served them any way he could. Is that liberal? Probably. He was very liberal in his remarks about wealth and power (critical of the misevaluation and misuse of those gifts), and very conservative in refusing to advocate any kind of overt rebellion.
He was very conservative in his love for God, Temple, and the Scriptures, and very liberal in his willingness to critique the use of those things, and to be misinterpreted as disrespecting those things — and in his readiness to get kicked out of synagogue for speaking what he saw in the Scriptures and in the world around him, no matter the situation or the “gravity” of those present.
So Liberal and Conservative are probably the wrong parameters.
But it’s a very valuable and stimulating question.
Is Jesus a Republican? Would he be a Democrat OR Republican today? Well, it’s VERY hard for me to imagine him being associated with today’s machiavellian Republican party, and not easy to imagine him being officially associated with the [greedy, manipulative – 2017] Democrats. In his day he would not even take a political stance against Herod, Pilate, or Ceasar. But he undermined all of them AND the religious establishment by his clearly emphasized moral priorities.
WTG
An infant mortality rate of six per thousand births is relatively high, but as the rate of abortions per thousand births is around 230 perhaps you will forgive my conservative callousness at considering that the more pressing issue. Not that the two are unrelated, as single mothers are at far greater risk for both.
“made even more potent by the presence of abortion and infanticide in his day – yet he said little or nothing specifically about that.” Admin, while I disagree with you nearly all the time, I generally respect your thoughtfulness. Sorry, not here. How can you just sidestep such a hideous wrong so flippantly? I understand that abortion and poverty go hand in hand, but abortion is also murder, and must not be legal in a just society.
MLZ:
You misunderstand me. I allow that anarchy is as bad as tyranny, and wholly concur that a balanced government is necessary even in the freest of societies. Christians have a social responsibility, I completely agree- indeed our social responsibility is far greater than non-Christians’.
You say that the Government cares, and that it ought to take care of its citizens’ needs. This type of vague language sounds nice but makes it hard to understand exactly what you mean. What government- federal government, state, local? What “needs” should it be the government’s responsibility to meet, what needs should people have to meet for themselves? How should the government (whichever level) fund these burdens?
Let me clarify my position. Yes, the government has some obligations to the poor, but these should be discharged more by the municipalities than the federal government. There is only so much that the government can do. Scripture makes it clear that the burden of caring for the poor falls primarily on the family and the church. Care must be compassionate, compassion must lead to charity, and charity is nothing without love.
Welfare checks are not the same as charity, Government-run waiting rooms are not the same as caring for the sick, and government of the people by the unelected bureaucrats, is not the same as government for the people by the people.
Very good points, WTG, and made even more potent by the presence of abortion and infanticide in his day – yet he said little or nothing specifically about that.
Surely Jesus would speak out against abortion, but unlike most republicans he would abhor the high infant mortality rate in the United States.
Republicans are emphatic about pro-life issues on the questions of abortions but are seemingly unconcerned about babies after they are born. The last time I checked six (6) out of every one thousand (1000) babies born are dying, some within close proximity to some of the best medical facilities in the world. Why? Could it be because of a lack of prenatal or postnatal care and the general health care unavailable to the poor or minorities and other disenfranchised families.
The Republican Party is and always will be the party of the rich (recall that the first thing they did after retaking control of the congress was to extend the tax cuts for the rich).
I believe Jesus would throw them out as he did the money changers in the temple. Jesus was not a member of the elite group in Israel and he certainly wouldn’t be a member of the Republican Party in this day in my humble opinion.