Jesus Is Just Too 'Woke' for Republicans
It's up to us, liberals, progressives, and just plain old decent human beings, to ensure Christianity - for all its faults - doesn't get co-opted, like the American flag, country music, and veterans.
In the twenty-fifty chapter, verses 31–46 of the book of Matthew, Jesus Christ’s disciples ask Jesus how to continue being with him in heaven. He responds:
The King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Jesus’ disciples start panicking because they never saw him hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, or imprisoned.
Anticipating that response, Christ replies:
Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.
Take care of the least among us — the poor, the sick, the hungry, the unhoused, the incarcerated, the oppressed, immigrants.
The essence of Christianity.
Yet every one of the least among us Christ exhorted his followers to take care of happens to be the most demonized and scapegoated by the very group of people purporting to be the most “Christian”.
We’ve all seen social media accounts of right-wingers displaying images of Jesus and/or a cross with profiles touting “God,” “guns,” and “freedom” in the descriptions, followed by anti-immigrant, pro-gun, racist, homophobic posts.
Right wingers worship a warrior Jesus, a Jesus who shoots back, hits back, lays down law and order against criminals and immigrants, who rains down Armageddon against infidels (i.e., anyone not white and Christian).
That might explain why so many so-called “Christians” today are calling the brown-skinned Jewish Palestinian refugee who hung out with crooks and prostitutes and preached a philosophy of unconditional pacifism, urged people to pay their taxes, give away their possessions, was anti-wealth, and anti-death penalty, woke.
Earlier this month, Christianity Today editor in chief Russell Moore warned that extreme right-wing evangelicalism is twisting Christ’s teachings into something unrecognizable to avoid looking “weak”.
At a time when many evangelicals embraced Donald Trump’s anti-Christian demagoguery, Moore resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention, and now warns the church is in crisis.
https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1696305478467248268
In an interview with NPR, he explained that when multiple pastors preached Christ’s advice on Sermon on the Mount to “turn the other cheek,” parishioners would ask, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”
He added:
What was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, “I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,” the response would not be, “I apologize.” The response would be, “Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.” When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.
Evangelical right-wingers will insist Jesus was against abortion when there is no record of him even talking about it.
In fact, nowhere does the Bible oppose it, Old Testament or New.
Now that the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has overturned the Roe vs. Wade decision that federally legalized abortion for nearly half a century, evangelicals can no longer run on it no matter how much they hide behind scripture.
And standing outside reproductive health centers slut-shaming women isn’t Christian either. Just look at how Jesus dealt with Pharisees about to stone an adulteress to death according to Judaic law. When they urged Jesus to pick up a stone and fulfill his legal obligation, he famously said, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
Evangelical right-wingers want to mandate prayer in school, going so far as the state of Texas requiring the Ten Commandments displayed in every classroom. But if they actually read Jesus’ words, they’d see he was against public prayer, evident in Matthew 6: 1–34:
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Find one right-wing evangelical opposed to the death penalty. Jesus, though, was pretty upfront about his opposition to it, as chronicled in Matthew 5: 38–39:
You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
This was one of the primary justifications for Dr. Martin Luther King’s non-violent stance against the injustices he died trying to expose (sound familiar?).
Right-wing evangelicals use Christ a lot to justify bigotry against our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters, citing two verses: Leviticus 18:22 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.
But Leviticus is in the Old Testament and 1 Corinthians is the word of Paul, not Jesus. Paul was a later convert to Christianity who never knew Jesus. Not a single one of Jesus’ gospels mentions homosexuality or transgender identity. They are, however, pretty clear about “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Earlier this year, a Manhattan grand jury indicted former Marine Daniel Penny for strangling unhoused street entertainer Jordan Neely in a New York City subway train.
Neely has become a “good Samaritan” among republican circles, admitting misunderstanding of the story of the good Samaritan, which goes like this:
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denari and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
At this point, Jesus asks, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” to which “the expert in the law” (lawyer) replies, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus commands, “Go and do likewise.”
The enmity between the Jews and their blood relatives the Samaritans is important here. The good Samaritan didn’t know if he about to be ambushed and left for dead like the man from Jerusalem, whom the Samaritan would be justified in assuming was a decoy. If the Samaritan had decided to ignore the wounded man, people would have just chalked it up to the rivalry between the two peoples.
But what made the Samaritan good was that he stopped. He decided to risk his life for a complete stranger who was his people’s sworn enemy because the man was in distress.
Daniel Penny killed Jordan Neely for no other reason than because he could. Neely was one of “the least of these.” All he was doing was making noise. He was threatening no one and was not endangering anyone.
Yet many evangelicals, republican politicians pandering to them, and their billionaire-funded media invoke Christianity to exalt a murderer.
And about all those “illegals” so-called “Christian” right-wingers vilify?
Luke 2:1–5 states, “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David).”
Both the Old Testament and the New exhort us to welcome the stranger, not stand at the border shouting, “GO HOME!” and “AMERICA IS FULL!”.
There are a couple things Jesus was explicit about evangelicals seem to believe were merely suggestions: divorce and adultery.
Interestingly, they still rally around a mendacious twice-divorced serial adulterer.
So, yeah, it looks like Jesus was pretty woke, which is apparently a bridge too far for some right-wingers.
It’s up to us, fellow liberals, progressives, and just plain old decent human beings to ensure Christianity — for all its faults — doesn’t get co-opted, like the American flag, country music, and veterans.
Jesus would not be okay with denying healthcare to millions because of the inability to pay.
Jesus would not be okay with ostracizing LGBTQ+ men and women.
Jesus would not be okay with booby-trapping a border crossing to maim or kill people trying to get across for a better life.
Jesus would not be okay with violently trying to overthrow democracy.
Jesus would not be okay with the morbidly rich avoiding their fair share of taxes.
Jesus would not be okay with hunting women down who have had or may wish to have abortions.
Jesus would not be okay with anti-Semitic (or any other) hate crimes.
While guns didn’t exist in his day, it’s pretty safe to assume Jesus would not be okay with people having virtually unfettered access to mass kill machines.
He would definitely not be okay with invoking his name to promote an agenda of intolerance, bigotry, exclusivity, and violence — basically the modern-day GOP.
How to we know?
Read his words.