Based on the New Testament scriptures, would the first-generation followers of Jesus more likely have been attracted to and found more in common with the Republican or Democrat Party of today?
This question is framed to force us to focus on the teachings of Jesus. As far as principles go, Jesus’ “red letter” statements should be given the most weight. In actions, though, let’s focus on what the followers who knew him or who knew his disciples did and believed.
The objective is to consider the central beliefs and policies of the two parties and compare them to what we know about the beliefs and actions of the early Christians. In the case of Republicans, their beliefs and policies have pretty much become whatever Donald Trump says they are. So the comparison is to the Party of Trump rather than what it once was under Nixon and Reagan.
If you search the web, you will find that many bright people think linking Jesus’ teachings with our current political beliefs something that we should do. Dr. Michael Kruger of the Reformed Theological Seminary, a very conservative Presbyterian, emphasizes this point in a 2 minute video.
Old Testament scriptures are NOT relevant to this discussion. After all, one could use the OT to justify ethnic cleansing and polygamy. Nor are commentaries by later Christian authors. Limit your justifications to what is found on the pages of the Books between Matthew and Revelations. It is also ok to use reliable historical information about the early Christians from other sources such as Suetonius or Josephus.
Point 1: The early Christians would find that President Trump and the modern Republican Party are at odds with the teachings and practices of Jesus and would find more in common with Democrats.
Imagine a meeting between two Evangelical Christian leaders who are allies of President Trump (the Republican Christians (RC’s ) and Peter and Paul, representing Jesus and the Original Christians (OC’s). To flesh this out, envision the two RC’s are James Dobson and Ralph Reed.
The OC’s have reviewed the tenets of the GOP and are familiar with the words and actions of President Trump. Peter has studied up on what the Democrats believe and are doing. The OC’s are interviewing the RC’s to understand why they, as modern leaders of Christianity, have allied so closely with President Trump and the GOP. Paul begins the interview.
“Gentlemen, you represent the Evangelical Christian community in America today. Your community has allied itself with Mr. Trump and his party. You claim that he and his party best reflect the values and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Please explain to us why you believe this.”
Ralph replies “President Trump promised to Make America Great Again – to take us back to the Christian values that once defined America and to make it the most powerful nation on earth by increasing our military. He is for law and order and freedom and he is for family values. He is for protecting our borders from illegal aliens. He is also against high taxes and for making people work for what they get – you know, like you said, ‘he who will not work, shall not eat.’ He is for capitalism and not socialism.”
Paul responds, “I see, and you believe that this all aligns with the teachings of Jesus? And as I understand, you are also for unrestricted gun ownership including weapons that can kill dozens of people in a minute’s time, and you are opposed to everyone having basic healthcare, am I correct?”
Ralph says, “Well, we can’t afford for just everyone to have healthcare – particularly for those who don’t work – you know, don’t eat, don’t get healthcare, same difference. On the guns, its not guns that kill people, its bad people.”
“Ralph,” Paul interjects, “Just so you know, the Holy Spirit tells us when you are lying. America has ten times the number of lethal weapons per person of most countries. Tell us the real reason why RC’s are not using their positions of authority to minimize the number of weapons and the harm they bring.”
“Ok, well the truth is, we need the NRA and its membership to continue to win elections. We don’t really like them, but overall, they are very effective allies”
Peter asks, “Why would Christians want to be ‘Great’? We never sought worldly power for ourselves, for Israel nor Rome. When James and John asked Jesus to allow them to sit at his left and right hand, He told them that whoever wants to be first will be a slave to all. Later, He told a parable about the owner of a vineyard who paid laborers the same though some worked much more than others. He said ‘So the last shall be first, and the first last.’ Why do you think Jesus wants America to be the most powerful country on earth? As Christians, why do you oppose the Democrats who seek to spend less on the military and more on helping the poor?”
Paul adds, “Few things were more important to Jesus than healing sick people – especially among the poor. He gave Peter the gift of healing and much of his ministry was spent doing just that. We never asked about people’s employment, just their needs. God has blessed America such that it is the richest country on earth. Even so, 30 million Americans lack access to health care coverage while many other nations provide basic healthcare to everyone. And yet you support leaders who wish to further reduce health care? Should you as Christians not be more compassionate?”
Peter notes that most Democrats support universal healthcare for all Americans.
Paul continues. “You say you support Republicans because they are for ‘law and order’. Really? Well, none of us were law and order people. I was flogged, stoned, and imprisoned multiple times for disrupting law and order. Peter here, nearly every other disciple, the Lord, and I were all executed for being radicals and not conforming to the rules of the day. Jesus went on a rampage whipping people and destroying property in a temple. True Christians buck the system when it is wrong and especially when it relates to the disenfranchised. As you should know from the Beatitudes and Matthew 25, Jesus especially cares about the poor – the least of these. We never supported the status quo and the rich. We put our lives on the line to help the most downtrodden among us.”
Peter notes that in America, as a group, the poor and downtrodden are the black people who have only one tenth the wealth and are incarcerated five times as much as whites. They have experienced so many abuses and killings at the hands of police that the Black Lives Matter movement has broken out throughout America and the world. He points out that the Democrats have come out in full support of this movement.
Dobson responds, “Well, we did not support BLM because the people behind it are radicals and some of the protestors are rioting and destroying property. But I guess your point is that is sort of what you early Christians and Jesus did. Maybe we should reconsider that one.”
“Ralph and James, you are missing the most important messages that Jesus taught. Christianity is not about power nor wealth nor is it about deserving and earning. What did the prodigal son deserve for his bad actions and profligate lifestyle? And yet the Father put a ring on his finger and killed the fatted calf for him. The vineyard owner paid everyone the same regardless of how long they worked. You are enamored with capitalism. It is based on greed and “Me first”. The early Christians shared their possessions freely with others – they were not concerned about keeping as much as possible for themselves. Does not the story of Ananias and Sapphira tell you anything? You support a man and a party that shuts people out and separates little children from their parents. That is contrary to everything Jesus taught and exemplified. You are supposed to love your neighbor as yourself. This man divides and demonizes people. If you wish to promote the policies and actions of Mr. Trump and his party, fine, do it. But do not claim to be representing the teachings and examples of the Lord Jesus and us early Christians. Your hypocrisy undermines the appeal of Christ to potential converts and puts your very souls in jeopardy.”
Counterpoint 1:
Note: For the Counterpoint, I have selected 4 postings from my FB wall by my conservative FB friends. In reading them, my main takeaway is that neither modern political party is more in line with the teachings and actions of Jesus and his disciples. I have highlighted text in their postings in the following ways:
Where the contributor makes the point that a person should not be judged based on their affialition with a modern political party, I have underlined it.
When a contributor makes a flat statement that is totally unsupported by any scripture or facts or, has made a statement that is totally irrelevant to the topic of discussion, I have shown the text in green.
When a contributor makes a point that I will counter, the text is in orange.
Walter Oliveaux
I’m going to throw this out, we are all God’s children to which he gave a brain and free will. He also provided us with a list of simple instructions/ Rules to follow. While God didn’t write and send a detail manual or volumes of laws, he provided a pretty good guide. Then, as Christians believe, he sent his only begotten son to provide us with better instructions on how to live a life more pleasing to God. His son then taught more details as to be more pleasing to God, but he had to entrust 12 imperfect humans to write it down for us to follow. And for the sake of argument by others, maybe 13 to maybe 15 humans, as other religions have books written by humans or taught their interpretation of what God wants us to do.
I will address the Christian bunch. But again, he gave us free will, with rules. The question is not which political party would the 12 align with. It’s do you align with the teachings of Christ and the 10 commandments, or the teachings of your religion. This whole tread seams to violate one of those teachings. Something about judging others. Our Christian God is a forgiving God. He doesn’t expect us to be perfect, he expects us to learn from our mistakes and misgivings and to forgive those who inadvertently wrong us. He made us in his image, but made all of us as unique beings, with expected flaws. We aren’t perfect. But we come with a warranty, God will forgive, people will not always forgive.
So do I think David Treppendahl is always right, no, but at the same time I don’t always disagree with him. While our political opinions differ in areas, actually many areas, I still respect his right to be wrong. The thread should maybe address who respects the others right to be wrong and who would if provided the opportunity nail you to a cross for not following their view of how things should be.
Second post by Walter
it’s Democrats that get their panties in a knot if God is even brought up. It’s Dems that took prayer out of schools, it’s Why I don’t understand why you are such a loud supporter of Democrats and their anti-religious policies that they push. I don’t think that the 12 Apostles or Christ would have been either, as they were not followers of the State. They were the opposition to the policies of the state, which in some sense were trying to act if the leader was some type of God.
So with that said I will say your attempt to justify your support of a modern day Democrat who obviously supports things that aren’t in line with the teachings of most Christian religions, or really most religions. If you believe they are, you can just look at the what worried the Dems during ACB’s hearings.
So my case is that the early Christians would choose none of the above and would vote more likely for Trump and Republicans since the Democrats have forgotten the people who use to make up their ranks.
Chad Fournet
I would agree that sometimes the chosen thread has a judgmental character. Who am I to decide what early Christians would have thought, and why does it really matter anyway. The world is vastly different than it was 50 years ago, 500 years ago, and 2000 years ago-but we still have this same struggle with the support of a lazy government that always wants more. And, how can a country be competitive in industry, and in productivity, with an inefficient government? It cannot! There will be haves; and there will be have nots. That is, was, and will always likely be the case, and the solution isn’t for some to take more from others, and use it for their own “As I believe God would have it done” purposes. In this thread, the subject is presented as if the Liberals have the belief that they are qualified to judge everyone using their own thoughts and knowledge, and that everyone should be subjugated to their judgement as to what is right in the eyes of God. I personally prefer an efficient government, a strong and productive economy, and lower taxes on a larger more productive, more competitive, and more sustainable economy. Produce more, tax less. Sometimes, the Liberal agenda seems like it just begs to send jobs and productivity overseas.
John Hashagen
God’s children are both Democrats and Republicans and god loves us all. Your opinion that god favors Democrats over Republicans is nothing but an opinion and is totally without support. I don’t need to justify my Republican position to you, I only need to love and obey God not the opinions of people who change party’s and ask others to justify why we don’t follow you.
Warren Whitaker
I say to you and any democrat to make the case that abortion is ok, that being anti- Israel is ok, that being anti- law enforcement is ok , that being anti- Christian or pro muslin is ok, that being anti -constitution is ok. These are a part of the democrat policies for the future whether you agree with these or not. Make your case.
Point 2:
Regarding Chad Fournet’s statement that it is Democrats who have the belief that they are qualified to judge everyone … as to what is right in the eyes of God. No, that is not what Democrats claim. I personally stated that on this blog just so you would know how infuriating it is to have someone challenge your relationship with God based on the political party one aligns with. I cannot recall any leader in the Democrat Party saying that if one is a Republican, his soul is in jeopardy. The main point of this discussion has been to say “Christian Republicans, stop wrapping yourselves in some santimonius mantle as if you are the Party of Jesus. You are NOT. Get the log out of your own eye before looking for the specks in the eyes of the Democrats.”
Regarding Warren Whitaker’s statement.
Abortion is never addressed in the NT, though we all know that it is wrong. We do know that Jesus had great compassion for sinners and offered them a way to deal with their guilt. There are few guilts greater to carry than taking the life of one’s own unborn child. No doubt, He brings great solace to women today who have had abortions and sought His forgiveness and peace. Jesus was no fan of Israel. It was the Israeli authorities who demanded that Pontius Pilot have him crucified. Jesus foretold the destruction of the in Jerusalem Temple and the Diaspora that would follow. He cared intensely about the Jewish people but as for the State of Israel, I don’t think so. He also had great compassion for the non-Jews – the Samaritan woman at the well and the Canaanite woman whose daughter he exorcised. They were neither Jewish nor Christians. Do you believe that He lost compassion for the descendants of these people when they became Muslims? Muslims are much closer in their beliefs to Christianity than those people were. Can you show me in the NT where Jesus supported democracy and the US Constitution? As for law enforcement, He and all of his disciples were law breakers and were executed by the governing authorities for disturbing the peace and disrupting law and order. What I am asking my Christian friends who believe Republicans are more in line with the teachings and examples of Jesus and his disciples is to use NT scripture to make that case. One of the reasons I have parted with the GOP of today is because I believe it is now the most “UnChristian” of the two major parties.
Counterpoint 2:
Warren Whitaker.
John 14:6 says Jesus is the only way to the Father. Christ and Christ alone. To promote or support any other belief would be an abomination. God loves everyone (even the unborn) but hates sin. Individuals can certainly find forgiveness in Christ but a nation should not promote any kind of sin. To support or promote any sin would be spiritually dangerous. Israel is the home land of the Jewish people. The Bible says God disciplines his own. Hebrews 12:4-11. As for the constitution or our laws Romans 13:1,2 Jesus said give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s. Matthew 22:21 As for support for Israel God’s chosen are disciplined of God but will not allow the world to destroy her. Recent historical events such as the 1967 Six Day War, then again in 1973, and yet to come the Gog-Magog War. Today the USA is Israel’s greatest ally but would it be under a Biden administration or should I say under a Harris administration??? I doubt Biden could serve 4 years
Counterpoint 3
Joshua Anderson.
It’s fine for Christians to be Republicans
In this post, I won’t be saying why Christianity requires you to be a Republican. It absolutely doesn’t. But it also doesn’t require you to be a Democrat. The goal of this post is to show that there is no contradiction between being a Republican, and believing in what is taught in the Bible, and accepted by the early church.
I’ll be breaking the relevant issues into two categories.
- Pragmatic positions (Is an unemployment check an effective way to mitigate poverty for a household, or asking if imprisonment for minor drug crimes do more harm than good.)
- Ideological beliefs (Abortion is always wrong/right, the government has a moral responsibility to help other nations in need, or immigration is a human right).
I recognize that the two party system we have isn’t a monolith, and that both the Republican party is largely an uncomfortable coalition of nationalists and conservatives, and the Democratic party is a somewhat uneasy alliance of centrists and democratic socialists (doubtless with other groups on both sides as well). With that in mind, I’ll try to stick with beliefs and pragmatic positions held by the mainstream of the party, and try to avoid the fringe of both.
Before I dig into the meat, I’d like to make a background point.
Jesus, the disciples, and the early church were supra-political. It wasn’t that the early Christians had no political views. But their loyalty to Christ was paramount, and brought together people on different ends of their spectrum.
The 12 disciples included the extremes (or at least former extremes) of both ends of the 1st century Palestinian political spectrum. Among them were Simon the Zealot, and Matthew the tax collector. (Mark 3:16-19). The Zealots were an extreme Jewish group who wished to overthrow Roman occupation through armed revolution. Tax collectors, on the contrary, were Jews who cooperated with the occupiers, collected taxes for the Roman government (and typically extra for themselves), and were despised by their compatriots.
Almost immediately after the death of Jesus, you could find the church transcending background, ethnic group, occupation, and secondary beliefs. Jesus united them.
That said, let’s look at the actual beef of both modern parties.
Pragmatic positions
Examples of pragmatic Republican policies would be reducing regulation, and looking favorably on gun ownership.
Examples of pragmatic Democratic policies would be a more extensive social safety net, acting to fight climate change, and free college.
The efficacy of these ideas on both sides is debatable. However, much of what people believe on these policies is based on their beliefs about other facts. For example, if someone believes that climate change is significant, human-caused, and worsening, they are likely to believe that we should stop it. The inverse is true. On the other side of the spectrum, if someone believes that free access to guns is necessary for a free, safe society, they will likely support it.
These pragmatic differences are mainly an issue of different understandings of the facts involved, rather than differences in principles or end goals. Although the facts of some positions may be opposed to reality, being opposed to or against acting to stop climate change (for example) doesn’t have anything to do with Christianity. It just says something about what one believes about the climate.
David’s post mentioned Matthew 25, and I agree that Matthew 25:31-40 makes it very clear that Christians should be concerned about the plight of the poor, and that whatever we do for them, we do for Christ himself. However, how to help them is to some degree a pragmatic issue. There are many ways to aid the poor, and government assistance is only one, and one that many would say does more harm than good.
Beliefs
On the other hand, there are some beliefs associated with the Democratic party that sit uncomfortably with Christian principles. (There are also many ideas associated with the Republican party that don’t fit well with a Christian worldview, but I’ll let those be addressed in another post).
By far, the Democratic belief that is most in conflict with the teachings of Jesus is the belief in a right to abortion, so I will focus on that one for the purpose of this post. The 2020 Democratic Party Platform says that “…Democrats believe that every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion.”
Jesus said in Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” In this, he echoed the ten commandments. The uncomfortable truth is that a fetus is a human being, in an early stage of development. As early as month three, a baby has arms, hands, fingers, and toes, and all of its organs are present.
It is a bold claim indeed that a helpless infant, a mentally disabled adult, or a dependent elderly person has a right to life, yet a baby in the womb does not. All may be reliant on others, an inconvenience, and incapable of thought or movement at the same level as a healthy adult. But they are still human.
The scale of abortion in our society trumps many other issues.
One can be a Republican and a Christian.
Abortion does not comfortably mesh with a Christian worldview. On the other hand, issues like healthcare, immigration, and taxation are largely issues of pragmatism, and reflect different understandings of facts.
At the end of the day, both major parties don’t mesh well with a Christian worldview. The early church was supra-political, and it’s absolutely not required, but there is no inherent contradiction between being a Christian and being a Republican.