"Wasn't Jesus a Liberal? Part 2"

[GreenPartyVoter]

I wrote an essay in October 2004 entitled "Wasn't Jesus a Liberal?" in an attempt to refute the denigration of liberalism by the Republican dominated Religious Right that increasingly claims only conservatives have the moral high ground and the endorsement of Jesus. Published on several sites on the internet, the essay encouraged a startling number of replies from readers thanking me for expressing thoughts and values that they also held. Many told of how they felt oppressed and ostracized within their communities of faith for sharing these views. What I learned is that their churches have disenfranchised vast multitudes of Christians who now don't know where to turn.

I was saddened by the responses from the Religious Right. Their commentary, revealing a great degree of ignorance and apathy concerning the full spectrum of Biblically-based Christian ideals that might be tackled in the political arena, were bitter and vitriolic diatribes that questioned my credibility as a minister and my standing in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus was and is beyond any simplistic pigeonhole definition of the term liberal. The classic nobility of Christian liberalism originated with Christ. His teaching was absolute and was not tainted by shifting cultural mores like we find in todays definition of liberal. In a benign Webster's Dictionary definition of liberal, a particular line that alluded to a belief in the basic goodness of man offended my evangelical critics. Their criticism indicated that as a minister I should know what the Bible teaches concerning the hopeless depravity of man apart from God's salvation.

I chose the Webster definition in an attempt to bring into focus the more classical understanding of the term rather than the distorted, contemporary, partisan-driven connontation. The Bible teaches that God created humans in His likeness and that there remains in everyone something that He loves and is redeemable. (John 3:16) I think it is interesting that Christians who oppose the content of my essay seize on that one phrase of definition and overlook other aspects that relate to being progressive and tolerant.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1009-31.htm

[HawkerHurricane]

1. The term "Bleeding Heart Liberal" has its origins...

in Christianity, with the 'bleeding heart of Jesus'. Liberals were accused of loving the poor and helpless more than Jesus did.

You cannot be a Christian and turn your back on the poor and helpless like Republicans do.

[H2O Man]

2. Two thoughts:

<1> Share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, cover him ...
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn
and your healing shall spring up speedily ...
Then you shall cry, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and He will say, "Here I am."
--Isaiah 58: 7-9

<2> The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has annointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the broken hearted; to preach deliverance to the captives; and recovering the sight to the blind; to set at liberty those who are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
-- Luke 4:18-19

Beyond liberal or conservative.

[Poppyseedman]

3. I find it rather silly to pigeon hole Jesus into a political position.

If you look at the totality of his life in the Scriptures I believe you will find many ways to make him a liberal or a conservative by taking his words out of context which is always wrong.

Good post

[Kailassa]

4. From memory,

"Whatever you do for the least of these my children, you do also unto me."

"For" in this context also means "to".