The most recent survey, administered online to 787 self-identified U.S. Christians using a 100-point scale, gauged how the participants believe Jesus would respond to their liberal and conservative views.
The findings?
Those who labeled themselves politically liberal or conservative reported that if Jesus was alive today, he wouldn't necessarily agree with their political views.
Conservatives reported that Jesus would probably be:
- more against abortion and same-sex marriage than they are and
- less opposed to helping illegal immigrants obtain citizenship than they are.
Liberals reported that Jesus would be:
- tougher on morality than they are and
- more open to questions concerning social issues.
When it came to defining marriage to exclude homosexual couples, the participants recorded a 32-point difference between their political views. There difference was even greater---54-points---concerning what both liberals and conservatives believe Jesus would say about excluding homosexual couples from marriage.
The survey's lead author, Stanford University professor of psychology Lee Ross, noted:
Liberals are conceding that they're deviating from Jesus on their views on moral issues and conservatives are conceding that they are deviating from Jesus on fellowship issues. They differed almost as much in Jesus's views as their own.
If The Motley Monk "gets it," both liberals and conservatives know they are not following Jesus' teachings.
Let the discussion begin...
To read the article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, click on the following link:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/01/26/1117557109.abstract?sid=1a9d0b5d-3b33-4cfe-91b3-0cf36e03ab20
When a conservative, Evangelical, Baptist, Catholic quotes Jesus or says they are doing what Jesus told them or what the Bible told them.. The Left calls them wing-nuts and delusional.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Left wants to justify ANY moral point as defined by their narrative, What would Jesus do? Is the mantra... I guess Jesus only reveals himself to the Left.
I can only say that I am trying to move my political and economic views to be more in line with what Our Lord teaches. It is difficult, at times; especially when I see some of my fellow conservatives going off in to areas where, clearly, a Christian shouldn't go. Anyone, for instance, who is in favor mass deportation of illegals would probably have a lot of explaining to do. Additionally, my fellow conservatives who keep defending (largely out of ignorance, I believe) what we call "capitalism" today are a bit off the mark on what a Christian economy should be like.
ReplyDeleteBut, with all that, it is still easier for me, as a Christian, to work with conservatives even when they aren't entirely clear on just what we are supposed to be conserving. Liberals are just impossible to ally with except in very narrow and rare circumstances (very hard to square support for abortion and gay marriage with living a Christian life).
The best thing we can to, in the long run, is to educate conservatives up to Catholic standards on economics and politics.