AOC Slam Dunks on Faith. Jesus Would Have Been a Libtard.
AOC is so often on the money, this time calling out Christians for regularly being, well, not much like Jesus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v8gpcJaKz4
As she mentions, the US has a "long history...of using scripture, of weaponising and using scripture to justify bigotry." Amen.
As she hints at here, when you look at a lot of Jesus' actions and principles, they are rather socialist and left-wing. Love thy neighbour/enemy, the Good Samaritan (universal morality)...
As Brad Chilcott states: "Following Jesus requires we love people in costly solidarity, and requires us to expose any ideology that pretends inequality is natural or ordained by God." In his article, "Jesus was on the side of the poor and exploited. Christian politicians should remember that" (where Liberal refers to the political party in Australia, which is conservative in nature!), he also says:
Jesus was overtly on the side of the poor, the excluded, the ignored, the disenfranchised and the exploited. He was on their side when it damaged his reputation, his earning potential and any hope he had of moving up the ranks of religious or political power. He was on their side when he drove out the price-manipulators and rent-seekers in the temple courts and he was on their side when it cost him his life....
We know that corporate greed, neoliberalism and trickle-down economics are not working. We know that unfettered capitalism is destroying our planet and rapidly increasing inequality. We know that discrimination – whether due to race, gender, sexuality or religion – makes individuals suffer, our communities less healthy and our world less safe.
We know that the economy is designed to favour the wealthy when income for those at the top increases while wages at the bottom go down. We know in whose favour our leaders govern when the rich are given tax breaks while community legal services, needs-based education funding and other social supports are being cut.
And we know that Jesus was consistently on the side of the poor.
Easter, with its powerful image of Jesus nailed to a cross because the religious and political leaders wanted him dead, invites Christians to give our lives for the sake of others. Following Jesus requires we love people not only with words, theology or charity but in costly solidarity and a determination to expose the evil of any ideology that pretends inequality, violence or exploitation are noble, natural or ordained by God.
The Easter weekend reminds us that we know how this will end. That those in whose favour the system is rigged will crucify those who threaten their power.
The whole article is worth a read. Whilst there will be elements that truly are expected of the time in which he lived, such as views on homosexuality, there is definitely a reactionary, anti-establishment, pro-welfare feel to Jesus, and AOC rightly points this out, and rightly illustrates the cherry-picking and double standards so many (American) Christians adopt.
I just love that certain evangelical Christians slam people like me for being "libtards" and so on: I just wonder if a secret Jesus popped up on the internet, how they would deal with that incarnation of God...
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