Quotin’ Jesus Atcha

Let’s start with these:

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” -Matthew 6:24

And…

“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.” -Matthew 19:24

But more than either of those, there’s this…

“Then 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 was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” -Matthew 25:34-45

So when you read all that, does it sound to you at all like current Republican/Tea Party/conservative policy? Do the current mantras of unregulated, survival-of-the-fittest, “free” market capitalism make room for these Christian tenets, that supposedly came from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself? When a conservative goes off about the unfairness of a graduated income tax system, or the money wasted on welfare, or the evils of ensuring that everyone is entitled to adequate health care, do you think he or she has these Bible passages in mind?

Probably not.

I’ve been mulling over this post for a long time, and I’ve thought a lot about all the things I could say to drive my point home. In the end, I’ve decided that sort and sweet is the answer. So here it is, short and sweet.

If you DON’T adhere to any sort of Christian dogma - whether you’re atheist, Jewish, Muslim, or apathetic, then I’m not addressing you. Not in this post. For you and I, the debate regarding progressive ideals vs. corporate hegemony, of providing for the proletariat vs. letting them fend for themselves, has to be reserved for elsewhere and elsewhen. You may agree with me or you may not.

But if you DO consider yourself a Christian, and ESPECIALLY if you think that the Bible is the unerring Word of God (I don’t, by the way), then I don’t see how you can vote for the Tea Party and/or the GOP and still claim to follow Christ. Screw the debate about abortion. Screw the debate over whether Obama is Muslim or not - those are herrings tossed up to throw you off track, to distract you from what is truly at stake here. And I’m sure some Bible scholar MIGHT be able to dig up some passage which contradicts the ones above. I don’t care. The above passages are pretty clear, and they came directly from JESUS.

If you vote Republican and claim to be a Christian at the same time, how do you reconcile that? I think that if you can find a way, then you’ve fooled yourself.