Christ’s loyalty was not to the political framework or even to a “Christian” culture but to the eccentricities of the specific case. He dealt with the person before Him—one on one, just as she was. He neither condemned nor defended her choices but, instead, offered love and forgiveness. Our zeal to “help God out” by using the political process to force our values upon the nation suggests God is too weak to assert His will on His creation, which denies the power of the Holy Spirit, which is called blasphemy. Only an un-Christlike hubris makes us believe we are actually pleasing God by demonizing people or exhausting ourselves trying to oppress them.
I keep forgetting to unsubscribe to a local church newsletter that
sends me daily ravings from a conservative pastor whose main message
is not Jesus or even love but Bash Obama, Bash Gays, Rail Against
The Supreme Court and solicit donations to fix potholes (not making
this up) in Uganda. For Pulpit Freedom Sunday, this man used church
funds to make a donation to the Romney campaign while proceeding to
use his “sermon” to bash and openly disrespect the sitting president
of the United States, in full view of his sizeable black
congregation which is now steadily attritioning. NRA-certified
instructors offer concealed-carry exam prep classes on lobby
brochures, among other slickly-designed propaganda portraying
smiling, happy white people. Images of blacks and minorities appear
mainly in the context of charity—food banks and helping the
underserved—and, of course, the ubiquitous outreach solicitations
featuring some sad-faced dusty black kid on the cover. Write the
check; feed the sad-faced dusty black kid. And my email receives
regular dispatches from the mind of this starkly-conservative
pastor, telling me what I should be doing and who I should be voting
for.
I am so sick of turning on the news and seeing, yet again, some
white conservative blowhard preacher telling me Jesus commanded me
to protect the sanctity of marriage. Jesus did no such thing. Paul
preached *against* marriage except as sexual relief for men who
cannot control themselves [I Cor 7]. Pastor Bigmouth insists
followers of Christ must speak for the unborn. He is lying. Not only
did Christ never issue such instructions, there isn’t even a
biblical model for the practice. There is absolutely no biblical
model for much of the conservative Christian agenda. I don’t believe
Jesus would form a SuperPac and cozy up to politicians He’d know,
full well, were just using Him. Jesus stayed focused. He didn’t
allow Himself to become distracted.
When Jesus walked the earth there were a great many things going on,
approved by both the community and the government, which Jesus would
never endorse, but He mounted no campaigns, started no petitions,
organized no rallies, nor did He teach us to. Jesus focused on doing
the will of His Father, and did not allow His ministry to suffer
from worldly distractions. They brought Him a woman caught in
adultery… what was His response? Condemn her? Engage in debate?
Defend her behavior? Lobby Congress? Go on CNN? [John 8:1-11] He
said nothing, He took no direct action. He drew in the sand with His
finger and waited for the religious blowhards to exhaust their
stupid arguments.
Wikipedia
One argument questioning the legitimacy of the Christian right is
that Jesus Christ may be considered a leftist on the modern
political spectrum. Jesus' concern with the poor and feeding the
hungry, among other things, are core attributes of modern-day
Socialism and opposition to the social disparity viewed by those on
the right-wing as inevitable or favourable. Some criticize what they
see as a politicization of Christianity because they say Jesus
transcends our political concepts. Mikhail Gorbachev referred to
Jesus as "the first Socialist."
Christ’s loyalty was not to the political framework or even to a
“Christian” culture but to the eccentricities of the specific case.
He dealt with the person before Him—one on one, just as she was. He
neither condemned nor defended her choices but, instead, offered
love and forgiveness. Jesus was a Man of peace Who, we presuppose,
was certainly empathetic with the suffering of others and the
corruption of the Roman Empire whose vassal Judah was at the time,
but He never sought to change or even to engage the government or
lobby the religious leaders of His day. Changing things politically
was not His mission. His followers assumed it was, which was mainly
why they all scattered after His arrest; they realized Jesus was
not, in fact going to overthrow the government.
Yet, that was precisely what the religious leaders accused Christ of
when they dragged him to the secular judges: sedition. The religious
leaders saw Jesus as a threat to their personal status and needed
him to be killed, but could not risk doing so themselves because it
would violate Jewish Law and they’d lose their position anyway. So
they turned to the Romans—whom they actively hated—and lied; trumped
up false charges that Jesus was out to change the government.
Jesus never attempted any such thing. Yet today, here’s all these conservative Christian bloviaters shnooking us for cash while they claim to do precisely that: rail against, encourage dissent against, and possibly overthrow the U.S. government for not adhering to their vision of “Christian” principles.