Can you be liberal and Christian at the same time?

?? By including both sides of what? I don't understand...

 

Love and kindness.

 

Jesus's own words regarding helping the poor;

1. Luke 6:20-21
   Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.’
2. Luke 4:16-19
   When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
3. Matthew 25:34-36
   Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
4. Mark 10:21-22
   Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
5. Mark 12:41-44
   He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’
6. Luke 14:12-14
   He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
7. Luke 16:19-25
   There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.
8. Luke 11:39-42
   Then the Lord said to him, ‘Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God.’
9. Luke 12:16-21
   Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.’

Jesus healing the sick;

Matthew 8:14-16

14 And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.


Plenty more of those including lepers, blind people, etc.

That you can't comprehend what Jesus was promoting is not my problem.

Needless to say another trolling response will be forthcoming since none of the above can be factually refuted.

 

I missed the part about handing your money over to Caesar, which is the leftwit version of "charity".

 

"""Needless to say another trolling response will be forthcoming since none of the above can be factually refuted.""""


Correct again!

 

Predictable as a clock without being as useful.

 

It's the truth, where is the part about handing your money to Caesar to buy heathcare? I see no serious answer is forthcoming.

 

Well, you obviously can't refute it so you resort to puerile insults. How ironic.

 

One more time: where is the part where Jesus says, "Give money to Caesar so he can distribute it as he sees fit"? That's our system. That's your system. The Church does it differently but feeding people really isn't the issue, is it? The real issue is hijacking Jesus for your own agenda in a silly attempt to guilt trip us.

I mean, really, you don't think we see through you?

 

...and again.....ditto...

 

I guess the troll patrol has no answers...

 

The problem being...?

No, you're trying to dodge the answer.

He did, however, propose that we refrain from casting our pearls before swine - which contradicts nothing else He said, and nothing I said.

 

Oh look an even less substantive response.

Just because you might not remember what you said or wrote yesterday, doesn't mean everyone is afflicted with the same problem. Not only do I recall my words, I stand by them.

But thanks for demonstrating that you holy rollers really do think they know the minds of others. Must be a god given talent.

 

The character of Jesus was created to be very pro-Roman. He always advocated paying taxes and accepting authority as appointed by his Father. I figure Jesus was invented this way in an attempt to put the brakes on the Judeo-Roman wars as much as possible and return to more peaceful conditions. It was, after all, a war led by religious zealots, and Jesus was invented as a zealot himself, a long-haired Galilean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galilean
The Pharisaic scholars of Judaism, centered in Jerusalem and Judea, found the Galileans to be insufficiently concerned about the details of Jewish observance – for example, the rules of Sabbath rest. The Talmud says that Yohanan ben Zakkai, a great Pharisee of the first century, was assigned to a post in Galilee during his training. In eighteen years he was asked only two questions of Jewish law, causing him to lament "O Galilee, O Galilee, in the end you shall be filled with wrongdoers!"[2]

The material culture of the 1st century Galilee indicates adherence to the Jewish ritual purity concerns. Stone vessels (which were required by Jewish dietary purity laws) are ubiquitous and mikvehs have been uncovered in most Galilean sites, particularly around synagogues and private houses.[3]

The Pharisaic criticism of Galileans is mirrored in the New Testament, in which Galilean religious passion is compared favorably against the minute concerns of Judean legal scholars, see for example Woes of the Pharisees. This was the heart of a friendly "crosstown" rivalry existing between Galilean Zealots and Judean Pharisees.

During the Great Rebellion (66-70 CE) the Galileans and Idumeans were the most adamant fighters against Rome; they fought the Romans to the death when many Judeans were ready to accept peace terms.

 

You made the direct statement that it was impossible for a conservative to be a Christian. I asked you for one Christian trait that makes it impossible for a conservative to be a Christian. Surely you have one trait to back up your claim.

 

Any ideology can be abused and used as an excuse to form a government or to motivate people to do the bidding of others. But that's irrelevant.

I'm stating facts from the religious ideology itself, from their own foundational documents (the Bible, the Koran, the hadith).

Israel can and should be a theocracy - but it is voluntary. In Judaism, an individual can join or leave as he sees fit, he can live in Israel or not. Christianity is wholly voluntary.

Islam is not voluntary, muslims have a duty to make all the world muslim and to implement sharia worldwide. You are either muslim or a subclass - kafr or shirk or infidel or apostate. Apostates are muslims who reject islam, and are to be killed preferably in horrible ways - you cannot leave islam. Other nonmuslims are either dhimmi (second class people) or slaves, both can be killed.

 

Totally wrong. What you claim is that Jesus requires people to support govt run wasteful, corrupt, ineffective programs that multiply poverty and pain and in the large scale actually hurt society, programs such as medicare, Medicaid, obamacare, social security.

The govt is coercive, it forces you to comply, and it forces you to do what other people demand of you even if you object, that's not charity. Jesus taught charity is voluntary and should be a reflection of an individuals own heartfelt concern and desire to do Gods will.

Jesus did not advocate that individuals turn over their charitable actions to the govt. Just the opposite.

 

Less substantive post? It's your post.

 

Good post, but that's not why Jesus said that. What he meant was that simply by having the coin with Caesar's face on it in their possession (an idolatrous practice) they were already doing business with Caesar on Caesar's terms, and it was a little too late to be worrying about whether paying taxes to Caesar was licit.

 

Ah, you're saying the graven image of Caesar on the coin was offending them. Sure, no doubt that was a part of the overall mess, of the reasons the Zealots so vehemently resisted the Romans. The Romans were also messing with them on purpose, if I'm not mistaken. Didn't one of the emperors order a statue to be erected in the temple, the "abomination of desolation"?

 

That was after Jesus' time, I believe.

 

comprehension problem? Or is that another example of your wit?

 

That's why your comment about "win win" seemed irrelevant to me.

As for earthly aid, "win win" doesn't enter into the decision. Jesus wasn't looking for win-win when he helped the Samaritan.