I was reading an article about political involvement of Christians. No, it wasn’t a commentary about the “Religious Right”, but rather it was a slam against the politics of the “Religious Left”. Frankly, it wasn’t all that interesting of an article, but there were a couple of comments that really made my head hurt.
One commenter in particular admitted he was no longer religious. However, he felt free to tell everyone else about what Jesus would do if He were alive today. What he seemed to believe was – er – interesting.
Apparently, if Jesus were alive today, He would be for “social justice”. You know, that thing that has gotten Glenn Beck all mixed up in controversy. Specifically, Jesus would be feeding the poor, volunteering at homeless shelters and working tirelessly for the underprivileged.
Um, sure. While I don’t believe that was the main point of the 4 Gospels, Jesus certainly did feed the poor, heal the sick and generally look out for others during His ministry. If the comments had stopped there, I wouldn’t be still scratching my head. I would still feel he missed the point, but I could have conveniently set it aside.
No, it seems that Jesus would be out there protesting. He would be attending rallies for women’s reproductive rights. He would be working for equal rights for gays.
Say, what? I have to wonder what version of the Bible supports this nonsense. Where did Jesus take on the cause of any group’s “rights”? I’d like to know where Jesus held a demonstration in the Bible. Now, Barabbas, there was a protestor!
Some COG magazine needs to do an article (especially in the wake of last night's health care reform vote) on why God prefers "democracy" or a "republic" over "socialism." And use the Bible to back up that viewpoint.
I've heard many ministers and members speak against socialism, as if the HCR vote is another step toward God's wrath falling on the USA. But they don't really use Scripture to explain why.
Interesting the anti-socialism ministers/members dont quote scripture. They likely parrot the right wing philosophy instead of reading their Bible. Perhaps they would run into the "socialist" economic concepts of the Jubilee Year (a redistribution of land every 50 years), forgiveness of debt after 7 years, dont glean your fields (i.e. let the poor eat of your produce), third tithe (for the POOR) and other scriptures that perhaps would fall under the banner of "socialism". Yes, that famous prophecy speaks of private land/fig tree so maybe that would fall under "capitalism" for arguments sake. But instead of taking a right wing side (which most COG people do) or left wing side, it would be really nice if ministers/members would simply go to scripture, just the scriptures, and come up with some conclusions about Gods economic principles. It should be obvious that all the economic systems today are not godly, period. They all bear bad fruit, some more than others.
Here is what has always confused me: The ones that talk up democracy and put down socialism the most are usually from the strictest and most totalitarian of organizations. Furthermore, they seem to forget that Christ's government is not going to be a democracy, at least until they need to justify their own ideas of church government in the here and now. No matter how you view it, it is very inconsistent.
One more thing: I am old enough to remember when "liberal" and "conservative" actually meant some things. Most of them were positive things, in fact (although not all). However, most of what I see in politics today is just simply hypocrisy, no matter what "side" we are talking about.
Christians really need to pull back from the hypocrisy. God did not bless this nation because it was any more righteous than other nations (cf Dt 9:4-5). No, it was the blessings of Abraham, pure and simple. Concluding that God has blessed us and therefore our form of government must be better than others really overlooks both the power of God's sovereignty in the face of human free will and the fullness of His abiding mercy.
John, from the perspective of a humble Non-Denominational Christian Minister, I see it like this…
After countless hours of research, after countless hours of watching debates and reading Scripture and after countless hours of personally speaking to these exact same individuals, I have come to the only conclusion possible that would explain your questions…
People throughout history have always sought to take the "power" away from the people who have it, so that they could then yeild that power "properly".
The only way to make ANY sense of the things you mention in this post, is to realize that the only way those people could be justified in their position, is to RE-INTERPRET the Bible in order to justify their position.
Consider this, if a gay man who also believed in God wanted a voice in the Church, he'd have a small problem. The traditional stance on homosexuality within the Church, is that it's a sin. How then could anyone who is "sinning on purpose" then have a voice? They can't. Or rather, they could, but their voice would be ignored.
So rather than become right with God, they choose to find a way to MAKE God right with them. Think about it. That's what everyone tries to do that doesn't have a true relationship with God. They try to figure out HOW to bend God to THEIR needs without EVER ASKING THEMSELVES, "How can I meet Gods needs".
The very same people who spend 100% of their time worrying about "What Jesus would do today", are the very same ones who spend all of their time talking about equal-rights and social justice and that women should have the right to choose to MURDER their own children.
These same people have "HIJACKED" the word "Christian" and have twisted and contorted it to mean what they NEED it to mean. It's the only way they can get their "voice" back…
So you stand correct, there is no translation of the Bible that supports any of the things they're saying. All they can do is take Scripture out of context and use it to their own ends, with others who would rather make God fit them, than for them to fit with God…
God Bless,
RevKeith
http://keiththerev.blogspot.com/