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Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Democrats, Eric Metaxas, God and Politics, politics, religion, Republicans, Was Jesus a Democrat?, Was Jesus a Republican?, Would Jesus Be a Republican or Democrat
Do you think Jesus would have been a Republican or a Democrat?
Panelist 1: My take on Jesus is he would be both.
Panelist 2: No, he wouldn’t. He’d be an independent. He would be a cafeteria politician.
Panelist 1: Well, first of all he wouldn’t be a politician.
Eric Metaxas: No, he would be an itinerant rabbi. By the way, he actually was an itinerant rabbi. I think we can move on.
Panelist 2: Whoa, whoa, well tell us how you really feel about our answers.
Eric Metaxas: No I couldn’t possibly, because this is being recorded.
__________
Eric Metaxas, commenting on the issue of Jesus’s political affiliations (or lack thereof) during a recent panel discussion.
Well, I guess that’s settled. My attitude towards the question is precisely that of Metaxas. In fact, his answer is probably a sentence too long. Jesus was an itinerant rabbi.
A red flag reading “INTELLECTUALLY BANKRUPT” should shoot up in your mind anytime an interlocutor cites a first century carpenter to defend his twenty-first century political ideology. It’s a sham trump card for them, first; and second – if the assertion is being made by a Christian – it’s a painfully unflattering and parochial association for the divine. During the most grim period of the Civil War, a beleaguered Abraham Lincoln was asked whether he believed God was on the Union’s side. Lincoln responded with typical prudence, putting the question to rest in one sentence, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is whether we are on God’s side, for God is always right.”
And while we’re at it, can we also stop equating the other guys with Hitler. That’s almost as idiotic.
Watch Metaxas in this short clip:
jmsabbagh said:
Jesus said.Love the others as you love yourself.Love your enemies forgive those who persecute you .,Don’t judge so you won’t be judged.”Jalal Michael Sabbagh
jalal michael sabbagh.http://gravatar.com/jmsabbagh86@gmail.com said:
God won’t become a politician .We know 99% of politicians are hypocrites and selfish,they say what they don’t mean.Their promises are baseless and their aim is to hold to the power seats till the day they depart the earth even if they are in their nineties .Jalal Michael Sabbagh.
navigator1965 said:
He’d be Irish. };-)>
Brian Bixby said:
Well, let’s see, should the Defense budget be at the pre- or post-sequester levels? That’s a political question. I don’t see a divine light shining on the answer. (Maybe Jesus would be wondering why we spend so much on the military, but that’s another story.) There’s an argument that goes back at least as far as Roger WIlliams of Rhode Island, that the majesty of religion is abused and corrupted when it is invoked to justify political positions.
Moreover, since there have been good governments that were not Christian, and bad governments that claimed to be Christian, that being a Christian is not essential to having a good government, and hence to being on the right side in politics.
rhchatlien said:
I think Jesus would have plenty to say in criticism of both parties. But essentially I agree that he would not be a politician, nor would he align himself exclusively with either side–no matter how much they both try to coopt him.
Brenton Dickieson said:
If you follow Metaxis at all, you have a pretty good sense of his politics. I think it’s clever how he answered.
Jesus, in his own context, was very political. He even died a political death. But in the way that human history goes, we have separated faith and politics. Or we pretend to, anyway.
So the harder question would be to ask how Jesus would act as a citizen of a democracy. It is easy to be totally sectarian and only imagine our own political party is good, and forget (or explain) the weaknesses. It is much harder to be a political citizen and try to integrate our faith with real life.
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