Was Jesus a Republican or a Democrat? The immediate answer would be: Democrat, of course, since most Jews tend to be Democrats. A deeper examination of Jesus' teachings confirms this thesis.
The first proof is Jesus was a lifelong advocate for the poor. He abhorred the common wisdom that a rich man can enhance his standing in the community and buy himself a place in the Kingdom of God through prayer and animal sacrifices.
Today this mode would be prayer and generous contributions to the church. But even a thousand years before Jesus, the prophet Samuel expressed a similar feeling: I am sick and tired ("ma'asu li" in Hebrew) of your prayers and sacrifices — go and perform good deeds. And Jesus famously said: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle — than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."
Jesus' rage at financiers and exploiters let him to overturn the moneychangers' tables in ancient Jerusalem's Wall Street — the Holy Temple. It must have been quite a scene as gold pieces clanged over marble floors, and Jesus' voice thundered that he will not allow his father's house to be turned into "a den of thieves."
Jesus was also devoted to the sick. Then, as now, the long-neglected sick are also poor, which proves that sickness and poverty are two poisonous fluids coursing through the veins of human history. The most horrendous and prevalent disease in those days was leprosy. Jesus' concern for the sick reached heroic proportions when he himself cleansed and comforted lepers. Whether caring for the sick really involved miracles in the Old or New Testaments is a matter of conjecture. Even if the miracles are purely symbolic, they're powerful imagery nevertheless.
Imagine how Jesus might have reacted hearing the U.S. House of Representatives reject the international treaty to protect the disabled? Witnessing such an obscenity he would have wept, just as did former senator and disabled American hero, Bob Dole. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is described caring for a crippled woman on the Sabbath — to the hypocritical indignation of self-righteous congregants. The story of Lazarus being raised from the dead is not about resurrection but about the admonition to never give up even on a severely ill person. Clearly, Jesus would never practice triage.
Feeding the hungry must be a given for each individual. The miracle of the loaves and fishes, in which Jesus miraculously feeds a multitude of thousands with five loaves of bread and five fishes, is a metaphor that every person must be fed even when resources are scarce. Somehow, humans and the earth must yield enough nourishment to feed everyone. In this past election campaign Republicans were fuming about the 45 million food stamps recipients, calling Obama "the food stamp President."
Jesus was a champion of the oppressed. Since Jews were prohibited from owning slaves, an "oppressed" person is any worker over whom an overseer, a landlord, or an employer has power to reduce or garnish wages; which would put the governors of Wisconsin, Michigan and other "right to work" states in the same category as the Pharisees. Another admonition is to adhere to an old biblical commandment: protect the "stranger in your midst." No doubt, if Jesus were running for President of the United States, he would easily win the Hispanic vote.
Every gospel in the New Testament records Jesus' gentleness and high regard for women. A good example appears in John 20, verse 18, where Jesus charges Mary Magdalene to announce his resurrection to the crowd assembled at the cave's entrance. Think about it: an announcement to alter humanity was entrusted to a woman! So what do you think Jesus might say to the suggestion of a trans-vaginal probe to perform on a pregnant woman; or questioning one if a brutal assault on her was "a legitimate rape?"
The values outlined above are traditional family values. So how is it that the GOP, a self-proclaimed "values party" — not only doesn't practice, but denounces, the virtues that had made Jesus of Nazareth a beacon of humanity?
Email Rachel Patron at rachel_patron@yahoo.com.
