American politics exhausts me. All the bullying, the fracturing, the angry mobs. I feel like I'm standing at the bottom of a lot of hills, each with their own, unique Tower of Babel, from which the occupants shout at me about building our own way to heaven. "Look at the facts and go with us!"
I've grown fairly deaf to all that noise, but as soon as someone claims Jesus to be part of their mob, my ears perk up. And I get angry. Angry enough that I have to cry foul. Every Tower seems to think they have their own personal Jesus inside. Just do your own search for "Jesus is a ..." and you'll see what I mean. Jesus was a libertarian, a communist, a republican, a democrat, an anarchist, a baseball fan. Every time this happens I think the infamous picture of Jesus invoked by the KKK at a rally in Portland.
Give me an argument in favor of some particular issue in American politics and I'll probably tune you out. But mention "Jesus" in your argument -- particularly if this Jesus tends to favor your position -- and you'll lose me. Every time.
Consider socialism.
I am theologically predisposed to democratic socialism. Socialism boasts ideals that look very similar to things Jesus teaches. Like socialism, Jesus cared about feeding the poor, and had warnings for the rich (see Luke 6.20-25). Socialism, or democratic socialism, seeks to eliminate economic poverty and to constrain wealth, and so it looks very much like what Jesus taught. But the similarity is an illusion. Socialism seeks to realize its vision through government. Jesus seeks to accomplish his vision through discipleship. Government and discipleship are deeply contrary to one another.
Government, for anyone who's paid attention since Aristotle's Politics, controls from the outside-in, while discipleship transforms from in the inside-out.
The government gets what it wants through laws, force, and punishment. Discipleship calls for change based on the intentional following of Jesus. That discipleship cares about economics because Jesus cares about economics. But Jesus cares about economics in a way the government doesn't. That's because Jesus asks his followers to give to those in need and care for the oppressed in sacrificial ways, not through coercion but through active engagement. Trying to secure and maintain economic equality from the outside-in will only lead to contention, resistance, and violence, as history has shown many times over.
If Jesus had wanted economic equality, it's easy enough to accomplish. In fact, that's one of the temptations he faced in Matthew 4. He could have exerted his divine authority in the political realm and established an unstoppable democratic socialism that would have perfectly balanced the economics of every earthly society. But that's the path that Jesus rejected. Jesus wasn't Robin Hood and he didn't demand that we give to the poor. He never took political short cuts for spiritual problems.
Governments are necessary in order to manage people and resources. Again, read Aristotle's Politics. But Christians have something much stronger than government. We have the Church -- that Body of Christ in the world, composed of those who follow Jesus' call for sacrificial love. The Church doesn't redistribute wealth, but it does redefine it. Wealth is not a human accomplishment or the product of effort. It's divine gift. The Church is that group of those who share what they have, love their neighbors, serve the stranger, and help the disadvantaged don't need to be managed.
How the Church treats people is not the end that justifies some means (as in government -- again, Aristotle), but the treatment of people is the whole point.
So anytime I hear folks hijacking Jesus for their own political ends, I have to point out all the ways in which they're simply wrong. Like, for example, when folks say Jesus was a socialist.
He wasn't. He was so much more than a socialist.
I've grown fairly deaf to all that noise, but as soon as someone claims Jesus to be part of their mob, my ears perk up. And I get angry. Angry enough that I have to cry foul. Every Tower seems to think they have their own personal Jesus inside. Just do your own search for "Jesus is a ..." and you'll see what I mean. Jesus was a libertarian, a communist, a republican, a democrat, an anarchist, a baseball fan. Every time this happens I think the infamous picture of Jesus invoked by the KKK at a rally in Portland.
Consider socialism.
I am theologically predisposed to democratic socialism. Socialism boasts ideals that look very similar to things Jesus teaches. Like socialism, Jesus cared about feeding the poor, and had warnings for the rich (see Luke 6.20-25). Socialism, or democratic socialism, seeks to eliminate economic poverty and to constrain wealth, and so it looks very much like what Jesus taught. But the similarity is an illusion. Socialism seeks to realize its vision through government. Jesus seeks to accomplish his vision through discipleship. Government and discipleship are deeply contrary to one another.
Government, for anyone who's paid attention since Aristotle's Politics, controls from the outside-in, while discipleship transforms from in the inside-out.
The government gets what it wants through laws, force, and punishment. Discipleship calls for change based on the intentional following of Jesus. That discipleship cares about economics because Jesus cares about economics. But Jesus cares about economics in a way the government doesn't. That's because Jesus asks his followers to give to those in need and care for the oppressed in sacrificial ways, not through coercion but through active engagement. Trying to secure and maintain economic equality from the outside-in will only lead to contention, resistance, and violence, as history has shown many times over.
If Jesus had wanted economic equality, it's easy enough to accomplish. In fact, that's one of the temptations he faced in Matthew 4. He could have exerted his divine authority in the political realm and established an unstoppable democratic socialism that would have perfectly balanced the economics of every earthly society. But that's the path that Jesus rejected. Jesus wasn't Robin Hood and he didn't demand that we give to the poor. He never took political short cuts for spiritual problems.
Governments are necessary in order to manage people and resources. Again, read Aristotle's Politics. But Christians have something much stronger than government. We have the Church -- that Body of Christ in the world, composed of those who follow Jesus' call for sacrificial love. The Church doesn't redistribute wealth, but it does redefine it. Wealth is not a human accomplishment or the product of effort. It's divine gift. The Church is that group of those who share what they have, love their neighbors, serve the stranger, and help the disadvantaged don't need to be managed.
How the Church treats people is not the end that justifies some means (as in government -- again, Aristotle), but the treatment of people is the whole point.
So anytime I hear folks hijacking Jesus for their own political ends, I have to point out all the ways in which they're simply wrong. Like, for example, when folks say Jesus was a socialist.
He wasn't. He was so much more than a socialist.