Since, the holidays are over and school is about to reconvene, I am (to put it mildly) busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest as we say in Mississippi. However, I wanted to revisit the discussion about Jesus and Social justice because we got such interesting responses. One good comment was about Christians who claim to be Communists or at least Marxists:

One teaching of Communism is that communism is completely anti-religious. Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, extreme Communists, both spoke out against religion altogether in rise of Communism. If Communism preaches against religion altogether, why would Jesus be a Communist? Doesn’t make sense for anyone to say that or think that if they any Biblical knowledge at all.

This is an important point. Can one be a communist without being an Atheist? Continue reading …

“What’s Christmas time… but a time for paying bills without money?” (Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol)

The meaning of Christmas seems to have been conflicted for a long time now. Charles Dickens well captured the view of the materialists in Ebenezer Scrooge. Is Christmas primarily about stuff? Getting deeper in debt without financially advancing oneself? I am not sure if people’s understanding of the celebration is better, worse or the same today. Our friend Pastor Keith did a Meaning of Christmas Survey A.D. 2010. Surprisingly a fairly high percentage of those surveyed had an accurate understanding of the Christmas celebration. I say surprisingly because Continue reading …

In last week’s blog, Was Jesus into Social Justice? Jonathan raised to assumptions that would seem to, as Jonathan put it, “are indeed hiding behind the furniture at Sojourners.” We had some great responses to the blog but I thought I would revisit the assumptions as we look at the politically incorrect Jesus.

1) Jesus would approve of redistributing wealth to create fairness.

2) The second assumption I find hiding in social conscience of the Evangelical left is that government is a neutral tool for securing social goods.

On the first assumption, we don’t really find Jesus being overly concerned with financial or material fairness. His concern seems to primarily be about man’s (and woman’s) heart for God. “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND” (Matt. 22:37) is the Great Commandment and from it flows the next, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

Our love for and devotion to God informs our actions toward others. Money and material stuff Continue reading …

So this is one of those YouTube . . . what are the young people calling it these days . . . “mash-up” of some comments by Jim Wallis calling for the redistribution of wealth in the name of social justice. Normally I would be wary of homemade videos of audio that can be taken out of context. However, in this case I’ll risk it in order to get at what I think are important questions about social justice. However I will leave it absolutely open that this video may be doctored or whatever to misconstrue what Jim Wallis thinks.

I think what surprises me the most about the progressive Christian movement exemplified by Wallis’ Sojourners and the Center for Progressive Christianity is Continue reading …

The story is told of football couch, Vince Lombardi’s exasperation with the team he had taken over, the Green Bay Packers and their seeming inability to turn around their 10 year losing streak. It is said that he called the team together and began with the following words, or something very similar:

This is a football. These are the yard markers. I’m the coach. You are the players

This all seems too basic that even reading it makes it sound silly and yet, sometimes the simple is deeply profound. When we lose sight of the basics, the core things, we are apt to wander off in ways that cause us great trouble. This happens to us as individuals, as teams, as corporations, as churches and even as nations. What are the basics define and direct who we are and what we are doing? As a nation the United States has as its founding document, something we might look at as the national birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence which begins with these words: Continue reading …

Would Jesus be involved in politics? What would Jesus say about the TEA Party? That is one of the questions we have been kicking around here as we are talking about the politically incorrect Jesus. Many groups have differing views on this and of course reasoning that to them makes sense. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach non-involvement. They point out that Jesus and his immediate disciples were not involved in politics and therefore, we should not be either. Some Christians and Christian groups hold a similar view. Political office is often seen as compromising with a corrupt system and includes the sorts of compromises they don’t believe Christians can make. Some, such as Islam, are of the view that their religion should take over the government and subject citizens to Sharia Law. They would argue that Jesus would support such a thing because he was a prophet who was a Muslim. They assert that Jesus is important in their religion and even agree that he is sinless. But then they also teach that all prophets are sinless. Of course, they also teach he is not God, was not crucified and therefore not resurrected. There are some Christian groups which hold to a similar view that it is our task to create a Theocracy which subjects society to the Old Testament Laws and regulations. Some, such as Barack Obama’s home church for 20 years, hold to views rooted in Black Liberation Theology as we pointed out in Barack and the Borg. Black Liberation Theology is essentially Marxism using Christian terminology and promotes Continue reading …