Although both the Republican and Democratic parties contain conservatives and liberals, the Republican Party has increasingly sided with its more conservative members.
Our country was founded on liberal and liberating values. The Founding Fathers were willing to change the status quo, overthrow an oppressive government, and create a new form of government by the people, of the people, for the people.
All men are created equal under God, but in the period of time leading up to 1860, they were born into an unequal system. Only white men who owned property enjoyed inalienable rights. Blacks were considered three-fifths of a person. Married women had almost no civil rights at all. Many Christians, but not all, supported this idea, quoting the Bible to justify slavery and oppression of women. Many Christians limited and resisted extending equal rights to others.
How did this change? Through the work of more liberal Christians. Most of the first abolitionists were Christians—mainly Quakers, Methodists, and Congregationalists. Over time, the impulse to liberate women also grew from Christian roots.
The most recent and extraordinary example of this process was the civil rights movement in the twentieth century, led by a Baptist minister, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The movement was conceived in African-American churches and sustained by Christians of all racial and ethnic groups. Many Christians have been, and continue to be, at the forefront of the fight for the civil rights for others.
Throughout the Gospels, we see the portrait of Jesus as a man who questioned the prevailing religious and social establishment. Many actions that Jesus took, and stories that he told, were about liberating people from legal, religious, and governmental oppression. Rather than demanding adherence to religious dogmas and the hundreds of religious laws, he questioned the way things were, and followed the freer Law of Love.
Jesus transcended sexism when he talked to a woman at the well in Samaria.26 Men were not supposed to interact with women except within the family, yet he spoke theology to a woman of a despised class and understood her. He affirmed Mary’s desire to listen and to learn, rather than fill the traditional woman’s role played by her sister, Martha.27 Women followed him around the countryside and he accepted them, even though this would have been against the social customs of his age. Women became some of his most beloved followers, and some of the leaders in the early Church.28
He challenged the racism of his day by telling a story about a man he perceived as good and righteous—a Samaritan, one of the most hated people in that time.29 This would be similar to telling a Klansman a story about a good and righteous African-American.
He challenged classism, by associating and even dining with the lowlifes of society—the rejects, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the outcasts, the sick, the lepers, and the untouchables, saying that they would enter the kingdom before the religious leaders of the day.30 He pardoned the repentant thief on the cross, telling him that he would join Jesus in Paradise.31
Jesus, as well as Paul, brought liberal values to the idea of marriage. A Jewish man and woman were supposed to marry and to have children. Jesus was single, and didn’t fulfill the appropriate social and religious customs of his age. Paul clarified that it didn’t matter if a person were single or married; each was to be valued.32
Jesus was against capital punishment, a position that is considered a liberal value. He forgave the woman caught in the act of adultery, and freed her, even though the religious law of his time proclaimed that she be stoned to death.33
Jesus rethought the idea of forgiveness and vengeance, clarifying that no longer should one seek revenge through an “eye for an eye”; nor should one forgive another only seven times, but rather seventy times seven.34 From Leviticus in the Hebrew Scriptures to Romans in the New Testament, Christians and Jews have been told to never seek vengeance toward one another. “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”35 The Book of Romans tells us, “do not overcome evil with evil, but overcome evil with good. Therefore, if your enemy hungers, feed him.”36
In many ways, Jesus was far more radical than are the most liberal members of Congress, asking us to act in a way that we often find impossible and impractical. He changed the way we were to think about the enemy. We are to make friends with our enemies, recognizing that if we do not do this, there will be trouble.37 Jesus expanded our idea of the neighbor, telling us that we are to think of our enemy as our neighbor, and he added a new commandment: to love our neighbor as ourselves. This doesn’t mean that we are naive about evil, but that we don’t add fuel to the fires of hatred. Rather than demonizing and attacking the enemy, we should use diplomacy, which is far more in line with the values of Jesus.38
Jesus practiced nonviolent resistance to oppressive laws. He suggested that we love our enemies—feed them, clothe them, care for them, and “offer no resistance to the wicked.” This turns the enemy into a friend. Jesus advocated non-violence with the enemy using a subversive tactic that is often used in nonviolent resistance. If the person of his day were asked for his coat, he was to give the cloak as well. If he were asked to go one mile, he was to go two miles.39
Why is this nonviolent resistance? If a person in biblical times gave up his coat and cloak, he would be naked, thereby shaming the person who asked him. It wouldn’t take long for the Romans to decide that this was embarrassing and not effective.
A Roman was allowed to ask his subject to carry a burden for one mile, but not for longer. If someone started to walk the second mile, the Roman would be breaking the law. It wouldn’t take long for the Romans to stop asking, once they realized that they couldn’t stop their subjects from walking that second mile.
Jesus and the prophets rethought the social structures that generally rewarded the rich and powerful and asked us instead to change our focus to the poor and the needy. The prophets asked for a compassionate nation, and Jesus asked for a compassionate people. Who do we particularly need to care about? Those people who could not give back to us, but who were in need of our care.
Jesus rode a donkey, not an elephant. Elephants were ridden by the rich ruling classes. Jesus didn’t identify with the rich ruling classes, but with the people. He was with the people and for the people and of the people—a core value of both democracy and Christianity.
The Ethics of Jesus
Jesus asked us to go beyond the letter of the law to the spirit of the law. Christian values go beyond simple rules to difficult ethical questions.
When Jesus picked corn on the Sabbath, and healed on the Sabbath, the letter of the law said this was wrong.40 He raised the ethical question—“Does this benefit or harm others?” If it benefits others, we may need to change the law.
Our country has many difficult ethical problems to consider. How are we to handle the ethical dilemma of abortion? How are we to handle terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear weapons? Should we make treaties with enemies? How do we deal with the increasing gun violence in our culture? What about the wide-ranging effects of a global economy? What should we do about climate change and health care and education? Is same-sex marriage a just decision in agreement with our Christian and democratic values? The Bible gives us no clear guides on many issues, except to be willing to confront ethical problems, guided by the Holy Spirit and the Law of Love.
The Holy Experiment
Could Christian values and politics be compatible? Is it possible to govern effectively using Christian values? At least at one point of our history, religious values were applied to create a democratic society called the Holy Experiment.
In 1681, William Penn received a land grant from James II of England to the land that became Pennsylvania,
