Jesusnomics

Today’s bit of creative proof-texting comes from TheChristianLeft.org via this image:

So when Jesus said “care for the sick” what he really meant was “use forced taxation to create a massive bureaucracy that will regulate every aspect of health care thereby increasing demand, creating rationing, and ultimately bankrupting the economy all while reducing individual liberty.”

Funny that we only now just figured that out. You’d think if this is what Jesus intended that the church would have been out picketing for government-run health care long before now.

It looks like Rev. Jim Wallis (who runs the group Sojourners) is starting a campaign to invoke Jesus as a defense against cuts to the federal budget.

He says in part:

“They’re talking about cutting bed nets for malaria and leaving every piece of military spending untouched. Are we saying that every piece of military equipment is more important than bed nets, children’s health and nutrition for low-income families? If so they should be ashamed of themselves.”

“The most corrupt government spending is military spending. Its cost overruns, outdated weapons systems, welfare checks to military contractors.”

“This is a biblical choice of swords into plowshares directly and the House Republicans want to beat our ploughshares into more swords,” he said. “These priorities that they’re offering are not just wrong or unfair, they’re unbiblical.”

According to the CNN story: “the leaders behind the “What would Jesus cut” campaign are also lobbying the Obama administration to forego proposed cuts to programs like college grants and heating assistance to low-income Americans in the 2012 federal budget.”

Oh, and look! The whole thing is being signed by dozens of Christian leaders, including David Beckman and Brian McLaren. Beckman has this to add:

When Jesus talked about how God will judge nations, he said that God will focus on what we did or did not do for the neediest among us.

Ok, so. Jesus is going to be really, really ticked off that we didn’t continue government handout programs and instead chose to worry about things like national defense instead. Setting aside the questionable use of a prophetic Revelation passage to support his anti-military stance, my question, of course, is where exactly Jesus put the government in charge of helping the poor, needy, and destitute. Didn’t he kind of leave that to the church?

Perhaps instead of spending money on ads and WWJC bracelets to defend a particular political agenda, the good folks involved in this effort could have helped the poor and needy in their local communities and encouraged other Christians to do the same. Of course that sort of local giving isn’t really all that good for votes or political power. And it doesn’t get you into the headlines.

Today’s post comes to us from @justindouglas

“If there was HALF as much pressure on Christians to go evangelize as there is to go vote, we wouldnt need to try to legislate morality.”

For starters, the phrase “legislating morality” sets my teeth on edge. Every bit of legislation involves  someone’s moral viewpoints being enforced. It’s impossible to separate morals from law. To expound on that idea I’d recommend reading a recent piece by Micah Watson entitled “Why We Can’t Help But Legislate Morality.”

Looking at the rest of this tweet the message is a very familiar one: “If we’d just get everyone to convert to Christianity then we’d live in a utopia where there’s no need for pesky laws about unspecified ‘moral stuff.’”  Let’s look at this claim…

For starters, eighty-three percent of Americans already identify themselves as Christians of some stripe or kind. What’s more, about eighty percent of the prison population also claims to be Christian. So on its face a mere nominal nod to a particular religious creed wouldn’t seem to decrease the need for laws on the books.

But let’s assume for the sake of argument that we’d successfully evangelized the entire country. Now that everyone in America is a “born again” believer, which laws would we then be able to discard? Murder? Theft? Rape? Traffic Violation?A quick look at any newspaper will show Christians committing all of these offenses and more.

The idea evangelism somehow nullifies the need for a codified rule of law is at odds not only with the concept of human depravity but also with every example of society that we see in Scripture.

“For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval”