A Question For All Liberals Who Keep Insisting That Jesus Was A Liberal.

Wherever the Lord went ... Wherever his mission lead him,


Why was the tax collector always the most hated guy in town?

 

I'm not a liberal and I'm not a religious person. But if one reads what Jesus has been reported to have said (by folks that were not his contemporaries, ergo hearsay), Then, by all means Jesus was a liberal. Maybe not a 'progressive' or a socialist/communist...but indeed a liberal.
Tax collectors, back in biblical times, were akin to bounty hunters. Some pretty nasty fellas with some pretty nasty collection techniques. They earned the fear and loathing they received from their victims (oops, sorry...taxpayers)

 

And they were hated in town,by everyone but Jesus, who famously had dinner with a very hated Tax Collector. Who then went out, and shared his wealth with everyone after Jesus spoke to him. So......seems pretty left wing to me.

AH

 

Jesus WAS a liberal. But he was a social Conservative. And he knew that the social (moral) was the determiner of all other phenomena.

My view of Liberalism is that it is a necessary complement and balance to Conservatism. Both are necessary. The trouble with Liberalism if you really think it through, is that Liberalism doesn't know when to stop (e.g. with welfare).

Jesus took us to points that were definitively progressive. But he knew when to stop. He didn't fill the begging jar of the cripple with untold gold coins, he healed him- thereby taking away his only source of monetary income- true, but seeing a higher goal than welfare, and knowing that the man could now earn a living without welfare, if he so chose.

 

Jesus wasn't a liberal. He was some sort of communistic, pacifistic vagabond.

He hated money also as is evidenced by phrases like "it is easier for a camel to pass through a needle, than for a rich man to go to heaven"
"woe to the rich"
"give to Caesar what is Caesar's and God what is God"
etc etc

He certainly wasn't anything like a typical republican.

 

he was a pacifist prince of peace foremost and republicans are not anti war

that is an easy example but there are others as well

 

I think you have missed the point.

They were living under ROMAN OCCUPATION.. Taxes went to the Romans.

 

It's always rather difficult for bible belt republicans to explain why their lord and saviour was their ideological polar opposite. Cafeteria Christianity indeed.

 

Why did Jesus himself think that the tax collector was the biggest degenerate in town who was most in need above everyone else of salvation?

Why did the tax collector have to isolate himself from the rest of the community?

 

Taxes went to the King and the religious leaders of the temple by agreement. They went to Rome when Rome called for them.

If Jesus was a liberal, why didn't he just support the government to better the lives of the townsfolk through their taxes?

 

Because he had magical powers to help them himself.

 

During that time Tax collectors only got paid with the funds that they collected and they had a quota they had to fill. This lead to some pretty harsh collection tactics. But the biggest crime to the Isrealites way of thinking was that all the collectors were Jews. They were helping and supporting the occupying Romans. Basicly they were traitors to their own people. Thus they were considered the lowest of the low.


By the way Jesus was very liberal in many ways. But I dont think either tag fits our savior.

 

*sigh*

The legacy of the tax collector was one of greed which feeds directly into Jesus' message that the love of money was the root of all evil.

Your religion isn't gonna line up with your rhetoric no matter how you try to spin it.

 

My mother was on welfare and I used Pell grants plus government loans to get through school. What exactly is wrong with welfare or help from the government?

 

Just shows how labels cheapen things.

Too many Conservatives and Liberals insist on some ideological purity test- and if you fail to do this or advocate that you are not a real "Conservative" or a real "Liberal".

Jesus was morally conservative in many ways. He was against sex outside of marriage, he was against divorce.

But by some measures he would be considered liberal.

Most importantly of all, he was a radical, for his brand of theology was a radical departure- and threat- to the orthodoxy. In this way, he certainly wasn't a conservative- and not necessarily a liberal.

 

Nope.. The Temple was supported by selling animals for sacrifice and taking a fee every time they changed money from Roman coins to shekels.

 

It has been thought through, the U.S welfare system is well documented by doing very little for the poor people as compared to other more socialised unionized nations which enjoy a better overall standard of living eg--less poverty, much less unemployment, less feul poverty, 1 year paid maternity leave, and no need whatsoever for a legislated minimum wage, as it would actually lessen peoples income if one happen
to be instituted. The list most certainly goes on.

 

Please dont do that.

 

Excelent question: because historicaly taxes always went to the kings - a way to steal from the working class to make them rich. identical stuff is happening today:

 

Exactly. With that long hair and hoboing around, he was a hippie.

I would shoo him off my lawn.

 

When did Jesus say not to pay taxes? He said to give everything you have freely to your enemies. In fact, I remember one passage says that even pagans give to their loved ones, but his followers should give to their enemies as well. Like if someone asks you for the shirt off your back you give it to them, if they slap you in the face you turn your cheek and let them strike the other one and forgive the man for harming you.

Jesus in the bible advocated absolute pacifism and non-materialism.

Further, the bible says that people should pay tithes to the church and give livestock etc to their leaders. The problems the Jews had with the Romans was that they saw the empire as being immoral. Do you think Solomon, David, etc didn't collect taxes from their subjects?

 

The question you had refered to as excellent has already been answered by others with great elaboration. Much better than the little bit of nothing you submitted about welfare. Welfare families typically have the same amount of kids as middle class families, welfare recipients are also less likely to fail a drug test than people who are not on welfare. Pretty much everything else you probably have heard is incorrect as well. If you really want to see what it takes to get people off welfare, look no further to the more socialised and unionized nations as I stated just above in a prior post. Welfare can exist with both socialism and capitalism however with capitalism today, it is a necessity.

 

I don't think the tax collector was the most hated guy in town. What's your reference on this?

 

This is what I think, also.

 

Was Jesus for the POOR, or not?