HWJV?

Religion Experts Ask How Jesus Would Vote


This is a stupid question. The following from the article describes our position:

"Jesus was not one to take sides on political issues," said Derek Davis, director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University in Waco.

While there were obviously no Democrats or Republicans during the time of Jesus, different groups vied for attention, including the fundamentalist Pharisees, the aristocratic Sadducees, the spiritually devout Essenes and the revolutionist Zealots.

"Interestingly, Jesus never sided with any of these groups but remained above such earthly disputes," Davis said. "This does not mean we should do the same. He was God. We are mere humans."

However, we feel the need to respond to this blather:

"If ever there were a bleeding-heart liberal, it was Jesus Christ," Moore said at Congregation Agudas Achim synagogue. "I think the carpenter from Galilee was the original Democrat."

...

"As I read the Scriptures and as I understand faith, God's side is the group that's feeding the poor, caring about children, making sure that people have enough food to eat — not killing others," said Tutt, who opposes the war in Iraq.

People, why is it so hard to understand the difference between personal acts of charity and mercy (which are what Jesus spoke to) and government action, which so often involves coercion as moneys are stolen from one person and lavished on another?

Please show me where Jesus advocated a progressive income tax. Or the Welfare State. Or any sort of forced (if you don't pay your taxes you go to jail) wealth redistribution whatsoever.

Compassion does not mean voting for the redistribution of wealth. How hard is that? In fact, if you are voting to have someone else's cash ripped from their wallet and deposited in yours, this could even be seen as selfish, the result of envy.

Real compassion -- "feeding the poor, caring about children, making sure that people have enough food to eat" -- is hard. It entails giving of your own time, energy and money -- what some call sacrifice. Promising to raise taxes on the eeee-vil wealthy -- or voting for those who will -- requires no sacrifice.

I even recall somewhere in the Bible where such sacrifices are said to be best made without fanfare -- no mugging for the cameras as you ladle soup into some homeless guy's bowl -- "See how good I am?!"

Jesus' mission was to save our souls. It's doubtful that can be accomplished by voting for socialists.