The Politics of Jesus

[filkertom]

In the NY Times today, Garry Wills has one of the more interesting takes on Jesus-as-political-football I've ever seen. Your thoughts?

Comments

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I don't have time to read the whole article in detail, but the rough impression is that I wish the activist Christians would read it. I've thought for a long time that I'd have a lot less of a beef with Christians if they actually paid more attention to what their Bible actually says about Christ.

[indyellen.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's really well written. I'm going to post a link in my LJ. Thanks for posting that!

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Very nicely put.

Its sad that the powers that be have made it so that one feels dirty to state your religious preference, one way or another.

[archanglrobriel.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...well I do agree with the author that Jesus himself wasn't political and the author makes some great points about why that was and the real nature of Jesus - but I also think that in the current political climate Jesus has been made into a political football, through no fault of ours. And the big mistake we're seeing Progressives make time and time again is that because we tend to err on the side of mutual respect and not engaging in a big hyper-aggressive chest thumping competition that never ends and solves nothing, we're often seen leaving the field of play as soon as some bullying Troll shows up.
Then when we do, the Troll screams that we're leaving because He is Right and We Know It. That becomes the take away that the rest of the nation sees...us sloping away with our tails tucked and hyper-aggressive Troll strutting about on Fox News talking about how right he is.
This is the way it's going down among Christians too. You put up a split screen on CNN with some nice progressive protestant minister up next to some screaming, frothing at the mouth Dominionist preacher and a massive battle for custody of the Faith ensues no matter what they're talking about. And usually the Dominionist is the one claiming with the most spittle and vehemence that HE speaks for the Christ and all Christians.
I think it's vitally important for Christian progressives to stand up against the hijacking of their Christ and the Right's messages (which He would not have endorsed) for a variety of reasons.
For one, it's important to kick down this illusion that the Right is the High Moral party, which strangely, they still hold onto even though there have been scandals and debacles and revelations of malfeasance, corruption and illegality throughout the party. That's a dangerous position for them to occupy.
The Republicans in power did not copyright the Bible and from what I've seen, the majority of them rarely read the red words. Democrats need to point out that progressives are more often talking about the sorts of things Jesus mentioned that good Christians should do with their lives.
The Republicans are talking the talk, wearing their Jesus Lover credentials on their sleeve ("I hoped that people would see Jesus through me." - Tom DeLay) but they are NOT walking the walk. And really Jesus would be deeply saddened by a lot of what they're doing.
But if the Left doesn't take pains to point that out, a lot of people who vote aren't going to see this for themselves and they're going to vote Republican time and time again because that's the party where Jesus lives.
And anecdotally...
In the months since I've had a "Jesus is a liberal" bumper sticker on my car, I've been challenged at least thirty times by actively belligerant Righties who are incensed that I would dare to lay claim to THEIR Jesus. In fact, it happens so much that I've twice gone out to scrape that bumper sticker off my car - because I don't really need the hassles. But I don't, because several times I've stopped the raging beast person who is yelling in my face and I've said "Do you read your Bible?" And it brings some of them up short, that I would even ask this question in a calm, genuine manner. And when they say "Of course I do!" I start to talk to them about how it is that the Democratic party - the liberal party in this country - is much more dedicated to the rights of the little guy, to feeding the hungry and caring for the poor, the sick, the elderly. Being good stewards of the Earth. Taking care of children and judging not, lest you be judged. Loving our neighbors as ourselves.
A couple of times, I've seen a totally baffled look on their faces and they go away pretty quickly after that. Twice I've seen dazed dawning comprehension occur to someone - and I treasure those. A LOT of the time the Republican sees that I'm not going to back down in the face of their bluster and they call me a bunch of ugly names (Jesus would be so proud) and run off in the other direction.
The ferocity of the reactions to a bumper sticker overall convince me that this is a statement that more people need to bring up and debate. There's something going on here, just beneath the surface, that is vitally important to the future and direction of our nation.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

*stands and claps* Well Well said. I've tried to make that same point many times. And alas its often a case of falling on deaf ears.

I NEED that bumper sticker!

[archanglrobriel.livejournal.com]

Why thank you. *grin*
And you can get the bumper stickers from Northern Sun at www.northernsun.com...just do a search on "Jesus was a Liberal".

Or maybe this link will work -

http://www.northernsun.com/n/s/5821.html?id=hGfTMgfn

[tandw.livejournal.com]

I think he's right, particularly as regards the impossibility of government mandating what he sees as the religious duty of Christians. That column, btw, is taken from his latest book, "What Jesus Meant." He goes into a lot more detail in the book about the disjunction between the actions of Jesus in the Gospels and the actions of those who claim to follow him today. To take one notably glaring example, in the Gospels Jesus is described as spending most of his time with people who were outcast from Jewish society because they didn't adhere to the Levitican purity codes--lepers, Roman collaborators, prostitutes, Samaritans, etc. Today, people who claim to follow him revile--in his name--those who don't follow elements of the Levitican purity codes.