As NBN noodled over a line of logic to leverage into an entire issue, we came upon this one very simple question: Would Jesus vote for Trump? Would The Prince of Peace support a guy who places winning or losing above all else? Would the man who forgives trespassers back a president who puts them in cages? Would a man who turns the other cheek endorse a man who points the finger of blame? Trump comes up short if not altogether subversive to the teachings of most all religions but let’s drill down to the heart of the Christian Conservative Faustian Pact that elected this guy: the right and responsibility of every person to govern themselves and the money to be made doing so.
At NBN we’re far from biblical scholars but of the few times we’ve cracked the Good Book, we’ve always been struck by the way Jesus asked people to follow their heads and their hearts and less so all those laws people promulgate when these two organs aren’t up to the task. Two thousand years later “The Gipper” (see above) took that ball and ran with it becoming the patron saint of Christian Conservatives in the process. Yet in the half century since Reagan declared that big government is bad government, dozens of social, economic and environmental protections have been passed, making The Gipper and the US government bigger than ever in the eyes of Christian Conservatives being told such restrictions go against God.
So now Christian Conservatives are canonizing a new saint. Donald Trump makes Reagan look like a liberal as he reverses priorities and policies this country has embraced since WWII. All while he feigns allegiance to a different set of strictures time has imbued with a mythical status that makes breaking them worse than illegal in the eyes of millions of feckless faithful. Therein lies the rub for this issue. The rules we obey and why in the Latest Blog.
I think Jesus made his views distinguishing earthly politics from matters of faith quite clearly if we are to believe this attributed quote: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”
In other words, do not look to Caesar, or the political class, to save your immortal soul, but it’s fine to look wherever you need to save your earthly life. Jesus did not ask his followers to sacrifice the latter for the former – that’s a choice for free will. If you don’t believe in the immortal soul, this question of WWJD is moot and thus fails as a judgment of those who do. Hypocrisy lives at home.
Religion is governance by another name, with the rewards being life ever after instead of life liberty and the pursuit of a rose covered cottage with 2.5 kids i.e. Heaven on earth. Either way there’s an all too natural human desire to want to be told what to do and what is right and what is wrong. From birth we look for patterns and organization in our lives, ergo free will like single malt scotch is best taken in moderation. In other words if we want to drive we have to stop at red lights and if we want to a drink, best not to leave the bottle on the table. But thanks for playing Mike. Your consolation prize is a plug for your wonderful website. https://www.tukaglobal.com/
And this: “It’s such a distortion of the teachings of Jesus to say that what he taught us to do personally—to love our neighbors as ourselves, help the poor—can somehow be imputed on a nation. Jesus never told Caesar how to run Rome.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/larry-flynt-on-his-final-farewell-to-the-falwells?via=twitter_page