The Right has it Wrong: Jesus was a Liberal

{Liberalism: a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of man, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for tolerance and freedom for the individual from arbitrary authority in all spheres of life}

There is an ancient art taking place in the Christian churches of today: cherry picking scriptures and Bible passages to support this or that argument. This practice has, in recent decades, given a second wind to the right-wing religious types as they use it to claim Jesus as their political ally.

This past year especially the Tea Party movement has constantly invoked the name of Christ in to their battle cry, but to me their invocation of Christ as a modern day Conservative is completely misplaced. Granted, applying a political affiliation to a person who lived over 2,000 years ago is fraught with fallacy. But to label him “conservative” takes fallacy to a completely different level.

Glenn Beck urges his viewers and listeners to leave churches that preach social justice because phrases like “social justice” and “economic justice” are code for communism. Beck, a self proclaimed Mormon was chided by the church after those statements and rightly so. Jesus was the forerunner of social justice. It was a constant theme in his teachings.

The simple fact that Jesus was such a prophet in the realm of social justice begs the question as to why Conservatives claim him as their standard bearer. A simple scan of my friends’ facebook status today reveals the conservatives right away. They say, “Pray and vote”, “ask yourself who Jesus would vote for”, and “vote on morals.”

Truth is that Jesus probably wouldn’t vote for anyone they support. Jesus said, what you have done to the “least of these” you’ve done to Jesus himself. When you listen to Republicans speak, they do not seem too concerned with the “least of these at all.” They favor tax cuts for millionaires and are against social programs like Welfare.

I had a U.S. history teacher in high school who said of Welfare, that “it isn’t well and it isn’t fair.” Full disclosure, I attended a Christian high school and he never missed an opportunity to shout that battle cry. I wonder though, if Jesus, with his care and concern for the poor and the down trodden would have felt the same way? I have my doubts.

Over and over again, Jesus taught us to believe in and live a spiritual and ethical life based in our essential, inherent goodness. What Jesus promoted was succinct set of spiritual principals and a way of life based upon love, compassion, tolerance, and a strong belief in the importance in giving and of generosity to those in need.

When I look at the Tea Party movement and the religious right wing of the Republican Party I don’t see tolerance for people that are different. I see no compassion for the downtrodden. I do see all of the things Jesus vehemently spoke against: greed, violence, the glorification of power, the amassing of wealth without social balance, and the personal judging of others, their lifestyles and beliefs.

My problem lies not in that Conservatives hold to antiquated views of the world and allow them to influence their opinions at the polls. The problem is that they wrongfully use Jesus as a political ally when in reality if he walked the earth today would probably be doing his best to distance himself far from anyone with an “R” beside of their name.

Words like liberal and progressive have for too long been demonized by the right and Jesus has for too long been used as the poster boy for the Conservative movement. Based on the definition at the beginning of this piece, I’d rather be a liberal. I’d rather be for progress, than against it and if I too am allowed to cherry pick the scriptures like so many in Churches across the country do, I think Jesus would rather be a liberal too.