{"id":138,"date":"2010-12-22T05:11:28","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T05:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html"},"modified":"2010-12-22T05:11:28","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T05:11:28","slug":"how-would-jesus-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html","title":{"rendered":"How would Jesus vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up on yesterday’s blog<\/a> reporting on the verbal exchanges involving Bill O’Reilly, Stephen Colbert and Bernie Goldberg involving the question of whether Jesus would side with liberals or conservatives on questions involving taxes and government spending, here are some of my thoughts and comments.<\/p>\n

1. The debate actually began when U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) went on a cable news program and said “This is Christmas time. We talk about good Samaritans, the poor, the little
\nbaby Jesus in the cradle and all this stuff. And then we say to the unemployed
\nwe won’t give you a check to feed your family. That’s simply
\nwrong.”<\/p>\n

<\/i>Comment: <\/b>For the record, even as a conservative, I believe that extending unemployment benefits is the right thing to do. While Republicans have a point that ideally the extension should be paid for by cuts elsewhere, I don’t think you start playing hardball here. At least unemployment goes directly toward help many people who are hurting — and are, perhaps, hurting as a direct result of government policies that created the current high unemployment situation. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, it seems that liberals are fine with liberals injecting Christianity into a political debate but tend to find it inappropriate when conservatives do. <\/p>\n

2. Bill O’Reilly weighed in next with in his newspaper column<\/a> that “Every fair-minded person should support government safety nets for people who
\nneed assistance through no fault of their own. But guys like McDermott
\nand his allies don’t make such distinctions. For them, the baby Jesus wants us
\nto provide, no matter what the circumstance. But being a Christian, I
\nknow that while Jesus promoted charity at the highest level, he was not
\nself-destructive. The Lord helps those who help themselves. Does he
\nnot?”<\/p>\n

<\/i>Comment:<\/b> I think Bill’s point is generally valid. A compassionate society needs to provide for the needy. That is certainly a fair and honorable use of our taxes. But taxation is the taking of other people’s money which places a moral burden on government to spend it wisely and to truly help the truly needy. Too often that’s not the case as the government throws (other people’s money) at social problems with little regard for outcome. <\/p>\n

As to the idea that “That Lord helps those who help themselves”<\/i> (which as Stephen Colbert points out was said by Benjamin Franklin, not Jesus) that’s true — but the danger of taking that idea too far is that it can lead to the judging of those who fall on hard times.  As it says in the Good Book<\/a> “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
\nrighteous and the unrighteous.”  <\/i>While I believe God does protect those who put their trust in Him from ultimate harm, bad things do happen to good people (and even good people make bad mistakes). It’s how we deal with them that can often make the difference — and turn our trials into ultimate blessings.<\/p>\n

3. In responding to O’Reilly, Stephen Colbert (on his Colbert Report<\/i><\/a>) played a clip of conservative Bernie Goldberg saying on The O’Reilly Factor<\/i> that “As a matter of fact, you know, Jesus probably would be — except for one or two
\nissues — a liberal Democrat if He were around today.”<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/b>Goldberg’s point (as he notes in his blog<\/a>) was that he doesn’t care what the Bible says about our current tax policy, considering it pretty much irrelevent regarding such matters. He then made his suggestion that Jesus would, on most issues, side with liberal Democrats.<\/p>\n

Comment:<\/b> As a Christian I, of course, find it very relevant to consider how Jesus would view the issues of the day. Fortunately, I find Jesus, the Constitution and the concept of a seperation between church and state (“Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”<\/i><\/a>) to be all simpatico. <\/i><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

As to the question of whether Jesus would be a liberal Democrat or a conservative Republican, I think it only leads to self righteousness on both sides. We all bring our perspectives to any debate but Jesus (God) sees the whole picture. My own feeling is that maybe that’s the spiritual lesson of democracy — that we learn to listen to each other without judgement so that we may solve the issues that confront us. We all hold a part of the puzzle but only by working together (and allowing ourselves to see things from the other’s point of view) will we really move forward on economic, national security and social issues.<\/p>\n

It’s been said that you can usually find two time-tested adages that say exactly opposite things<\/a> (i.e. “Hard work never killed anybody” and “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”). It’s not that one is right and one is wrong. When taken together, they balance each other. So it is with us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following up on yesterday’s blog reporting on the verbal exchanges involving Bill O’Reilly, Stephen Colbert and Bernie Goldberg involving the question of whether Jesus would side with liberals or conservatives on questions involving taxes and government spending, here are some of my thoughts and comments. 1. The debate actually began when U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,13,24,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-current-events","category-journalism","category-politics","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nHow would Jesus vote? - Catholics Media and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How would Jesus vote? - Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Following up on yesterday’s blog reporting on the verbal exchanges involving Bill O’Reilly, Stephen Colbert and Bernie Goldberg involving the question of whether Jesus would side with liberals or conservatives on questions involving taxes and government spending, here are some of my thoughts and comments. 1. The debate actually began when U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-22T05:11:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How would Jesus vote? - Catholics Media and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How would Jesus vote? - Catholics Media and Culture","og_description":"Following up on yesterday’s blog reporting on the verbal exchanges involving Bill O’Reilly, Stephen Colbert and Bernie Goldberg involving the question of whether Jesus would side with liberals or conservatives on questions involving taxes and government spending, here are some of my thoughts and comments. 1. The debate actually began when U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html","og_site_name":"Catholics Media and Culture","article_published_time":"2010-12-22T05:11:28+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html","name":"How would Jesus vote? - Catholics Media and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-12-22T05:11:28+00:00","dateModified":"2010-12-22T05:11:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/12\/how-would-jesus-vote.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How would Jesus vote?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/","name":"Catholics Media and Culture","description":"Catholic Church News and More","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}