Jesus-A Bleeding Heart Liberal?

I am frequently reminded how wrong we can be when we stereotype people based on their religious convictions, or based on just about anything else. I am guilty of thinking of people I know (with a few very notable exceptions) that attend the Alexander Campbell type of Churches of Christ as being conservative reactionaries when it comes to politics. The following letter, written to a Tulsa newspaper by an elder in one of the local churches is just such a reminder.

You can read the full letter on the Morning Rush blog at http://terryrush.blogspot.com/2006/12/being-salt-and-light.html.

I will just give you his final paragraph:

"If Jesus were walking the Earth today, from his actions and his words, some might understandably describe him as a bleeding heart liberal. But in truth, he is more accurately described as a bleeding hands, feet and side compassionate. And so must we be if we intend to bear his name. "

I have been told that the author of the letter went beyond words to actions when he contributed to the Obama campaign.

Witch: But we spell it differently

One of my favorite musicals is Brigadoon. And one of my favorite lines in the show come when the townspeople of Brigadoon are telling New Yorker, Jeff Douglas, about the witches that threatened the village. Jeff responds, "We have them where I come from too, only we spell it differently." That has always been my approach to Ann Coulter, but she makes some truly outrageous claims in her column when she tries to demonstrate her knowledge of the Bible and fails miserably. It comes in her rather lame response to the rather lame comments by a well-meaning democrat as reflected in the bumper sticker at the top of the post. In response to the incredibly stupid remarks by Rudy and Sarah at the repubcon, Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee said: "Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus, who our minister prayed about. Pontius Pilate was a governor." I have been amazed at the groundswell of righteous or not so righteous indignation emanating from the religious non-left.

An editorial by the publisher Loné Beasley of an Ada, Oklahoma newspaper said: "Jesus was not a community organizer. For anyone to say so as a way of promoting a political candidate shows as gross a misunderstanding as has ever been generated by a presidential campaign. Jesus dealt with individuals and individuals only, not entire communities."

The publisher needs to look at the gospels again. He will find that Jesus entire ministry took place in communities, both large and small. When he was in town, the crowds were so big, people had to tear through the roof to get to him. When he walked by the sea, he had to get into a boat to keep from being pressed by the crowd. Even when he went up on the mountain side, the crowds followed him. How could he have fed 5,000 and 4,000 people dealing with "individuals and individuals only." I wonder what the publisher thinks Jesus was doing when he organized his own community called "the church."

Pastor Chris, Gig Harbor, Washington, said: "Let me make one thing clear – as an actually believer in Jesus: 'Jesus was not a "community organizer.' Jesus is the Son of God, the Lord of the universe, the savior of humanity. Demeaning Jesus as a "community organizer" is an insult to every Christian believer in the world. But, more importantly, it is a reckless, blasphemous and profane attack on the Divine Person who sits at the right hand of God the Father.

He goes on to give a dire warning to those who would stoop to such political skullduggery, "I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of anyone who throws around such mischaracterizations of the Living God for political gain."

I guess Pastor Chris forgot that part of the Christian creed that says that Jesus was fully human as well as being fully divine. Somehow, in light of many of his teachings, I don't think the human part of Jesus would object to being known as a community organizer. Remember that the teaching of Jesus that is emphasized more than any other by nearly all of the New Testament writers is "Love your neighbor as yourself." Do publisher Loné and pastor Chris think all of those neighbors were living out in the wilderness all by themselves? Perhaps there were some communities around somewhere.

I really liked the comment by the guy who said that even if Jesus was a community organizer, Pilate was not a governor, he was a prefect. If this guy will do just a little more homework he will find out that a prefect is one level of Roman governor.

But the best (worst) comments from the aforemention witch (check spelling) who in her regular fashion produces some poorly written attempts at being ironic or satirical saying, "Rep. Cohen would be well-advised to stay away from New Testament references. As anyone familiar with the New Testament can confirm for him, there are no parables about Jesus passing out cigarettes for votes, lobbying the Romans for less restrictive workfare rules or filing for grants under the Community Redevelopment Act. No time for soul-saving now! First, we lobby Fannie Mae to ease off those lending standards and demand a windfall profits tax on the money-changers in the temple."

If she really knew as much about the New Testament as she wants us to believe, she would know that Jesus spent very little time "saving souls." That was left to his followers after he ascended back to heaven. Those closest to him at the time (the community of twelve) really did think he was "organizing" the Jews to throw off the Roman oppressors and bring on the kingdom of God. She also makes her weak little attempts to insult the work of community organizers.

But her number one, super-stupid remark comes earlier in the column when she tries to make a case for George Washington being pro-life because in a speech to his troops before going into battle in 1776, he said, "The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of the army." She says, "So Washington . . . gave us one of the earliest known references to the rights of the "unborn." That's right! George Washington was a "pro-life extremist," just like Sarah Palin. I've know her to say some crazy stuff, but that one pretty much tops them all.

We DO NOT Torture

If you accepted the "big lie" technique that allowed George Bush to get us into a war in Iraq, this one should be no problem for you. It's obvious that he really thinks that if he just keeps saying, somebody will believe. The sad thing is that he is right. And the worst offenders are those who should be working the hardest at defending the rights of the the poor, the sick, and the prisoners, so-called Bible-believing Christians. I do not understand how people who claim the Bible as their "only" guide for faith and practice, can so totally ignore what it actually says. They work their tight little (or not so little) fannies off to make sure that everyone has a chance to be born, but don't give a damn about what happens to them after that.

--Let's be sure that we don't use a little piece of embryonic tissue that will never be born, to help relieve the suffering of someone who is already born.

--Let's fight as hard as we can to make sure no child of moderately well-off parents gets government paid health care. Forget about the millions of poor children who will suffer because of it.

--Let's support that godly man, George W. Bush no matter how many times he lies and how many people he gets killed because somehow he fits into our poor, befuddled idea of what a Christian is supposed to be.

--Let's fight with all our might to stop campaign finance reform so that we can be sure that no one restricts our right to say what ever we chose in Jesus name.

--Let's kill a commie for Christ (oops, reached a little too far back for that one)

Compassionate???? Conservative????

President Bush vetoed legislation that would expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program complaining that the expansion was too big and would give health insurance benefits to children whose parents might be too far above the poverty line. What a concept: to deny health care to millions of poor children because some children who are not quite as poor might also get health care. Following are just a few of the comments I found from people who are outraged by the president's lack of compassion.

Jesus made healing a principal sign of his ministry and of the presence of the kingdom of God. From a biblical point of view, it is simply wrong when health becomes a commodity and accessibility depends upon wealth. . . . SCHIP is one bill – one program – to help fix the health care problem. No bill is perfect. But a bipartisan group of legislators think it is a good bill in the right direction.

To veto the bill, with no alternative plan instead - to simply abandon millions of poor children, to leave them to a market system that is failing to provide health care to enough people - is simply morally unacceptable.

Mr. President, members of the House and Senate, 9 million American children are without health care coverage this day. . . . When historians reflect back on this era, do we want to be remembered as the people who turned their backs on the uninsured children of this nation?

I think this veto has the potential of being talked about 20 years from now as part of the legacy of this administration, and it is seen as a cruel and cynical response to the needs of poor children.

I disagree with the [White House] legislative staff on all of this. Frankly, I think the president has had pretty poor advice on this. I can answer every objection that they've made, and I'm very favorable to the president. I know he's compassionate. (His words, not mine. I don't think he is concerned) I know he's concerned about these kids, but he's been sold a bill of goods. --Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

From streetprophets.com

When a young couple have a kid with an expensive, long term disease, will they try to take away our right to fire the parents to save money on our employer health insurance costs??????
When a young couple have a kid with an expensive, long term disease, will they try to take away our right, (after the parents lose their jobs and get new ones) to deny coverage to the kid because of a pre-existing condition???????
When a young couple have a kid with an expensive, long term disease, will they try to take away our right, (after the parents lose their jobs and get new ones), (and after their application for SCHIP is denied because the parents make too much money but their kid isn't covered) to run up bills in the parents names into the millions of dollars????????
When a young couple have a kid with an expensive, long term disease, will they try to take away our right, (after the parents lose their jobs and get new ones), (and after their application for SCHIP is denied because the parents make too much money but their kid isn't covered) (and after weve run up bills in the parents names into the millions of dollars) will they demand that we loosen the bankruptcy laws??????????
God in heaven, Jesus would never stand for this lack of personal responsibility on the part of parents! How dare those Liberals!!!!!!
(This happened to a niece and nephew-in-law of mine. They both have decent jobs, health insurance that does not cover their son's hemophelia, and owe millions of dollars in health care debt that they can never repay, and can never get out from under.... Jesus would be proud.)

The words of another prophet come to mind, "Would Jesus wear a Rolex on his television show?"

By Their Fruits . . .

I loved it during the Dems debate the other night when Tim Russert caught nearly all of them off guard by asking them about their favorite Bible verse. All of them seemed a little nervous about the question except Dennis Kucinich, who quickly pulled from his pocket a copy of St. Francis' prayer, ". . . make me an instrument of thy peace . . ." which he keeps right next to the copy of the Constitution that he always carries. While some have criticized him because it was not a "Bible" verse, it certainly is biblical. I am constantly astounded that people who consider themselves to be followers of Jesus and his teachings find so many ways to get around his teachings on peace. I don't think Kucinich has a chance to win, but maybe he can influence the platforms of the front running fence straddlers.

The Illegal Alien Is My Neighbor!

The biblical illiteracy of many who claim the Bible as their inerrant, infallible guide is often astonding. Nowhere is this more true than in the issue of Christian response to immigration reform. There are very few issues in the Bible where God's expectations are more clearly spelled out for us. I encourage you to read the article by David Gushee, on Christians and Immigration Reform.

I have extracted some of the key statements:

"As American Christians, are we more Christian or more American? I think that we should be Christians first."

"Biblically, the five most relevant moral principles on this issue are love, justice, hospitality, family and humility."

"Every person is my neighbor, whom I am called to love. The “undocumented worker” or “illegal alien” is my neighbor."

Jeremiah 22: “Do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed violence in this place.”

"Matthew 25, the king says, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Illegal immigrants are strangers."

"As Christians, we cannot rest comfortably with raids that leave children in schools and daycare while their parents are deported."

". . . our true “citizenship” is in the church, and we are there as “resident aliens” hospitably welcomed by our gracious God. In this sense, we too are aliens, immigrants and strangers, and we should identify compassionately with this world’s versions of the same."

Referring specifically to the immigration reform bill, "This is hardly the kingdom of God in action. But it is far better than any alternative, and Christians should support it."