Jesus.
I’m not particularly religious, despite spending most of my life in a religiously affiliated education setting and writing my senior thesis about religious denominational stances on homosexuality. (12 ish years of Catholic school – ugh.) I’ve had a weird personal relationship with both religion and faith, mostly it’s a love/hate relationship and conflicting beliefs. Growing up in a mostly Catholic setting will do wonders for your guilt, let me tell you. And most of my own experiences with religion and faith are heavily based on the fact that I was raised in that mostly Catholic setting during some of my most formative years.
But lately I’ve been thinking a lot about Jesus and how I really do think that he seems like a pretty radical guy. I do really think that he would be on the front lines of the #BlackLivesMatter protests, that he would also be arrested for feeding the homeless, that he would be an avid and outspoken feminist. (Also not a white guy. Definitely not a white guy.)
I mean, this guy regularly hung out with known sex workers, advocated for the rich to give more to the poor, and frequently called out people he thought were being hypocritical. The image to the left is from John Jugelsang and reads:
Jesus was a radical nonviolent revolutionary who hung out with lepers, hookers, and crooks; wasn’t American and never spoke English; was anti-wealth, anti-death penalty, anti-public prayer (Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, Verse 5); but was never anti-gay, never mentioned abortion or birth control, never called the poor lazy, never justified torture, never fought for tax cuts for the wealthiest Nazarenes, never asked a leper for a copay; and was a long haired brown skinned homeless community-organizing anti-slut shaming Middle Eastern Jew.
Some articles about Jesus and how he would be signficantly more radical than many conversative Christians would like include:
- Why Jesus Would Say #BlackLivesMatter
- Sorry Republicans but Jesus was a Marxist
- Jesus Wants an Ethical Minimum Wage and a Serious Campaign Against Poverty
- Why Every Jesus Follower Must Show Up in Ferguson!
- Jesus Died in a Police State
- 7 Reasons Why Jesus Would be a Proud Feminist