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Sing it: ‘Jesus loves the public option'
By Tommy Felts
Contributor
Published October 13, 2009
Liberals have found religion.
Specifically, Jesus.
It seems some Democrats and their cohorts have discovered the Biblical Messiah makes an even better pitchman than the savior in the White House. (Maybe they picked the wrong guy to seal the 2016 Olympics deal for Chicago.)
So despite the long-standing liberal argument that religion has no place in public policy debates, they’re trading in the “race card” (at least momentarily) for the “Jesus card.”
When the health care debate recently appeared all but lost on its merit, some supporters of the Democrats’ public option began shifting gears, appealing to conservative religious folk. The tactic? They’re now arguing Jesus would favor government-run health care.
After all, they say, the debate isn’t really about personal choice, personal responsibility or whether the government can afford to pay for the public option — like many conservatives have claimed. Nope, liberals know the truth.
The fight is far more simple than that. It’s good versus greed. It’s a question of whether we should take care of the poor and downtrodden or just let them agonize in sickness.
And we all know where Jesus falls on that issue.
So, the logic goes, if you don’t support liberals’ version of health care reform, you’re basically spitting on Jesus and exposing your hatred of the poor. (Maybe that explains why Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., said Republicans want the sick to “die quickly” and that opponents of the Democrats’ plan supported a “holocaust in America.”)
Luckily for liberals, the Jesus card is handy for more than just health care reform bullying. Filmmaker Michael Moore also has found it a handy tool for bashing capitalism (and shilling for his new movie).
Moore recently posted a note on his Web site called “For Those of You on Your Way to Church This Morning.” In it, the millionaire far-left propagandist questioned whether making money is a sin, and whether Jesus would be a capitalist.
“In my new film I speak for the first time in one of my movies about my own spiritual beliefs. I have always believed that one’s religious leanings are deeply personal and should be kept private,” Moore writes in the note. “I’m also against any proselytizing ... ”
He then goes on to proselytize and use his thoughts about Jesus to rationalize his political agenda — bringing down capitalism.
“I have come to believe that there is no getting around the fact that capitalism is opposite everything that Jesus (and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha) taught,” Moore writes later. “All the great religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what’s left for everyone to fight over.”
“Jesus said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into heaven. He told us that we had to be our brother’s and sister’s keepers and that the riches that did exist were to be divided fairly. He said that if you failed to house the homeless and feed the hungry, you’d have a hard time finding the PIN code to the pearly gates.”
Much of that may be true, but Moore erroneously equates competition with corruption, and omits the fact that the teachings of Jesus and the Bible depend on free will (with limits, of course).
God wants us to choose to be charitable. He wants us to choose to feed the hungry. He wants us to choose to take care of our neighbors.
If we don’t make the choice for ourselves, we’re not doing it out of some laudable spiritual desire to help or be more like Jesus; we’re doing it simply because the government tells us to. (And who are we worshipping then?)
Forced charity is as much an oxymoron as mandatory volunteering.
Now, I don’t doubt that many liberals — even Moore — are sincere in their religious convictions. I’m sure many of those making claims about Jesus’ left-leaning thoughts on modern-day political issues believe everything they’re saying.
But that doesn’t stop a few words from popping into my mind.
Convenient. Misguided. Hypocrisy.
What word don’t I hear?
Unfair.
Conservatives have consistently played the Jesus card through the years, using religion to justify many of their policies. From the abortion debate to opposition to gay marriage and beyond, their masterful melding of politics and religion has yielded much success — and, consequently, the ire of Democrats.
But now that liberals have latched on to the Jesus card tactic, they’ve given it the legitimacy they’ve long denied. If talk of Jesus is valid during squabbles that may help the left, they can’t cry too loudly from their high horses when religion and “values” issues don’t work in their favor.
Liberals have found religion, and now they’ll have trouble hiding from it.
Tommy Felts is an award-winning freelance columnist based in the Kansas City area. He can be reached by e-mail at tommyfelts(at)hotmail.com.
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