President Trump

The “render unto Caesar” quote was about taxes as youll recall not about how government should handle charity. Not sure if conservatives want to champion his endorsement of citizens giving tax money to the government as a sign Jesus was a model conservative. And anyway it was made as a response to agents of the Pharisees who were trying to trick Jesus into declaring that Jews shouldn’t pay taxes. And he didn’t fall for the trick. He basically said Caesar is on the coin so its his coin not ours which is a clever way of saying I wish to play no part in an economy run by a conquering force and imposed on its people. But if you take from this that Jesus was “indifferent” to a pagan occupying force on his holy land that killed and tortured Jews to keep them in line then that’s a stretch interpretation in my book.

It is true that he was much more vocal about the Temple authorities and associated merchants who he thought were corrupt and acting contrary to gods teachings. But you can find numerous references to Jesus’s disgust with rich people’s false charity. Just giving a few coins was hypocrisy to him. He believed in selling ALL your possessions and giving the funds to those in need. That a rich man had no chance to get into the kingdom of heaven. Now you can say that’s only about the individual but I seriously doubt theres any modern conservative who would think that’s a rational conservative approach to charity. Theres certainly very few who emulate that no matter how devoted a Christian they claim to be. They would call him an anti-capitalist leftie and a nutjob if he tried pulling that today. And I cant for a second think he would endorse a Donald Trump over say a Bernie Sanders. Do you really think that?

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Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies...

This is all true but entirely ignores that they way Jesus said to help would be a non starter for most conservatives today. Do you believe Jesus would be fully on board with cutting taxes to the rich at the expense of the poor? Do you think Jesus's teachings are more aligned to a libertarian sensibility or a socialist one?

"The government shall be upon His shoulders" "God forgive them they know not what they do" healing the soldiers ear his consistent plea to turn away from the rigid law interpretations by Sadduced and Pharisees The fact that he was never talking about who the ruler of the day was or how that fit into his message. I don't think Jesus had much faith that the government or it's laws would change one person's heart.

I feel safe in saying he wouldn't endorse a political candidate. I could be completely wrong of course.

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Letterboxd

Jill Stein of course but I agree, I doubt he would tell people who they should and shouldn't be voting for. Besides, he'd be slammed as part of the liberal elite who are out of touch with real people.

Thats probably the right call. I just have a hard time believing Jesus would approve of what the vast majority of christian conservatives choose to do in his name (and not do).

That we will most certainly agree on. I am not willing to hold the Democratic party up as a picture of Christianity or charity though.

Totally fair. It has always been an odd, irksome, emotion for me to see the Christian Right claim a higher standard, judge an opposition by that standard, all while not really following their own standard (generally speaking here, I know this does not apply across the board). If I can step away from it all and force a spectator's perspective, I see the CR claiming a Christian moral high ground but never really practice it, where the left may not practice it either but has never claimed it as some lifting level of separation to begin with.

From a Christian perspective, I expect more from the Christian Right. From a Christian perspective, non-Christians are of the secular world and by definition cannot be held to the same standards. That's the whole point: to separate oneself from the sins of the world and be better spiritually. Like you, I don't hold the poster boy of the Democratic party up as a Christian. Whatever stereotype that may be. But I also admit they never claimed it, so it wouldn't make much sense for me to try to hold their feet to the fire. The Right, on the other hand....

It's like I preach in so many of my posts regarding movies. I expect a Sandler comedy to be exactly what it is. No more, no less, and I only judge it based on its own relative standards. When a higher quality, more meaningful movie comes around like Dunkirk, I will hold that one to a higher standard because it is presented as a higher level film, at least compared to Anger Management.

I sit on the left, relative to the attitudes of where I live at least. My views are deeply influenced by a Christian upbringing. I can't even have this conversation with most friends or family without it quickly turning ugly.

It is very strange. Anyway. Neither here nor there lol. Just rambling on a work break carry on...

Where I would push back on that a bit is that I do think the left takes the moral high ground on social issues. Very quick to judge if you don't agree with them on their programs.

Reminds me a bit of something my dad and I disagree on quite a bit. He considers himself centrist, like most do, but says the reason he votes Republican is simply that they are for smaller government. I know that's the consensus but I tend to think of republicans as for small government economically, big government morally. Democrats the opposite on both fronts. Probably why I lean libertarian if I am honest but even there I have issues because small government is different than no government. My bugaboo is abortion though, always has been. I have this real wild premise that babies are people too.

Now I am the one rambling.

I can't really argue your push backs, and agree mostly. Also, I'm not touching the topic of abortion with a 10' pole.

Those dang MSM fake polls!

Oh, snap!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...try-apart.html

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

The others may be left leaning , but dani8's reaction to my comments about Islam are not just of a left-wing person. They are more like that of a Muslim. She gets offended by my comments like a Muslim would be . I guess she got too enamoured of the Pakistanis in her visits to North West frontier province which is near the Afghan border.

is this guy for real? The other day he told me I was a christian. Your obsession with me is absurd. And it;s not near the afghan border. It IS the afghan border, and it;s not the only country in the world I've experienced. Maybe if you put as much energy into finding out about the world rather than salivating about how much you hate pakistan you wouldnt be on a movie forum fixating on someone you dont know and will never know. Get a hobby!

One of the best speeches in movies.... Very accurate.

Good thing Nostromo didn't check in... that guy is WAY too left for me, and such a PC liberal!

So many people here are obsessed with you Dani. Why is that?
(Can't speak for others, but I know I'm more obsessed with YOU than I am with Islam!)

As-salamu alaykum!

Yeah I get it. Yoda is on holiday and you two are taking the opportunity to continue stirring up your usual sht. Grow up! Disengaging from you both but I will be filing your infantile crap and carry-on. Goodbye.

LOL! Yeah that's it!
Yoda's on holiday, so who's the substitute teacher? (We can all try to get Dani in trouble for a change!)

To the substitute mod... you know, Yoda always lets us surf the site outside when it's nice and usually lets us go five minutes before the bell rings, and he lets us chew gum while posting!

I once bitch-slapped Angelina Jolie while posting -- AND -- I also praised George Bush.

I know, I know, but it happened.

Sorry, was out of town and couldn't reply to this sooner.

I'm not sure what this is meant to be a response to; you're ostensibly responding to the distinction I drew between public and private support, but this statement seems to ignore it.

I believe it's really easy to win an argument if you get to describe the other side's position for them. Suffice to say, conservatives don't think it's "at the expense of the poor," so this isn't an argument made from a shared premise. And arguing from a shared premise is the entire idea when you say something like "if you really believed in Christ you'd support X."

I think the question itself is wrong, because it treats the compulsory aspect as some kind of incidental detail. Wanting to help the poor doesn't mean you're "aligned" with any law that purports to do so any more than thinking you shouldn't say rude things makes you "aligned" with censorship laws.

That said, the libertarian sensibility at least allows for the possibility of charity, whereas socialism precludes it by definition.

Sure, but that's not exclusive to conservatives. It seems pretty likely that Jesus wouldn't approve of the vast majority of what everyone does, conservative or not.

Only if "pulling that" means "advocated that it be mandated by law."

I don't think Trump is anywhere near the standard bearer for conservatism, so I don't think this would be the right question even if I agreed with you. But even if I swapped Trump for someone else, I think speculating about this kind of thing is always a bit myopic. It seems to me that Jesus spent a fair bit of time explaining to people that they were consumed by minute differences instead of focusing on much larger problems. It was less "you're on the wrong side" than "you're not even fighting the right battles."

All that said, since you asked, I think He'd care more about things like abortion than, I dunno, marginal corporate tax rates or carried interest.