On Mar 1, 2006, at 7:29 PM, Julia Thompson wrote:
Onward Christian Organizers
Commentary: A lot of activism on the left springs from deeply held
faith.
By David Hilfiker
February 28, 2006
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2006/02/
christian_organizers.html
http://tinyurl.com/q6txj
I thought Nick would be interested in this, at least, and probably
someone else as well.
You were right. Someone else as well: me, a left-handed, left-
leaning, fairly liberal Christian.
I think a lot of what passes for lefty politics is not so much lefty
politics as the simple acting out of compassion -- a willingness to
"suffer with" those we see as suffering, especially from what we
lefties are fond of labeling "structural inequalities."
In our church (United Methodist) this Sunday, the Scripture lesson
was the story of Jesus and the so-called "Rich Young Ruler". I tend
to think of him as an MBA, perhaps full of the self-importance of
wealth and influence. In the story, he comes up to this earthy, but
respected Rabbi, and asks what we may be a sincere question, "What
must I do to get to get eternal life?"
Jesus gives him a surprisingly pat answer: "Obey the commandments",
and rattles off a few. The young executive ticks them off on his
mental list, and smugly replies "I have kept every one of those
commandments since I was a child." Jesus says, "Then there is one
other thing that you must do: sell everything you have and give the
proceeds to the poor." The last we hear of the young man is that he
became very sad, because he was very rich.
I wonder if Jesus wasn't trying to take this guy out of his possibly
smug comfort zone to have a little more compassion for the people
with whom Jesus associated -- the cast-offs.
Anyway, that's one interpretation of the story. Looking at it as a
kind of "parable about Jesus" as opposed to a "parable from Jesus" is
one of the things that marks me as a liberal Christian...
You may now resume your regularly-schedule list.
Dave
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