Continuing on religion, politics, and hypocrisy from the last post, I wanted to add something that has bothered me for a while. What separates Christians from Jews and other religions is their belief and study of the New Testament. In a single sentence summary, I would say that the New Testament through the story of Jesus as the son of God sets forth a new paradigm of morality based on “turn the other cheek” and greater compassion and understanding compared to the Old Testament’s crueler “eye for an eye” sense of justice. This could be one-dimensional or simplistic, but if you have a better single sentence, I am all ears.
Jesus would be against the war in Iraq, the notion of nation building, and democratization through violence. He would invest heavily in diplomacy, and welcome immigrants, even illegal ones, and provide paths to citizenship. Jesus would be against torturing prisoners or deporting them to torturing states.
Jesus would be against the death penalty. Jesus consoled sinners and would be for drug counseling and against “three strikes and you're out.” Jesus helped the poor and asked the rich to repent. He would be for progressive taxation and against dividend cuts for the rich. Jesus would be for more social programs rather than less. He would pour more money into the public school system. Jesus would share his healing hands and nationalize health care. And with a penchant for turning water into wine, maybe he is a little like Ted Kennedy without the driving record.
On the other hand, Jesus would be pro life, (maybe) for a religious government, and would teach religion in schools, although not to dictate morality for the sake of condemnation. Then again, he taught openly rather than imposing his views on others.
Overall, wouldn’t Jesus be a Democrat? How is it that the Republicans have hijacked Jesus and made him a big business, death penalty loving, you’ll burn in hell slurring, war monger? Either the Christians aren’t very Christian-ly or I have the New Testament and the Old Testament really bass-ackwards.
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