My religious values guide my voting decisions. More specifically, my Christian values guide my voting decisions.
That is likely true of you too. Why do I say that? Because Gallup polling shows that, in the Southeast, 74% of those polled claim to be either very religious or moderately religious. In Mississippi, my state for nearly 48 years, World Population Review data show 77% of those polled claim Christianity as their chosen religion.
Richard Conville
So it is quite likely that you, the reader, have read the Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — in the Bible’s New Testament. And because of that, you probably have a working knowledge of who Jesus is.
To claim my Christian values guide my political positions is not an issue of church-state separation. That’s quite another issue. But to claim my Christian values guide my political decisions, that is an issue of religion and politics. And for one living in the Southeast, it would be normal for the former to inform the latter. I imagine that’s true for just about all of us.
Separation of church and state, however, is a quite different animal. It is a legal issue and involves the First Amendment of the Constitution and all the case law that has flowed from it. It involves the courts. Separation of church and state also involves creating barriers on government institutions to prevent them from (a) interfering with my “free exercise” of religion and (b) influencing my choice of one religion over another. Free exercise means free exercise. Free choice means free choice. Period.
So, back to Jesus. As a Christian, I try hard to be a faithful follower of Jesus. That is, I try hard to follow his way of living and live true to his teachings. Not perfectly, of course, but always trying hard.
And so, the question comes naturally: Which Jesus do you follow?
Looking around at the Trump administration, especially the Rededicate 250 event on the Washington Mall last Sunday, there are several Jesuses to choose from. I try to follow the one who preached his first sermon from Isaiah 61:1-2.
“The Jesus I follow does not hold that life is about accumulating wealth, power and special privilege.”
The sermon is found in Luke 4, starting with verse 16. This is a passage that comes right after Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness where, each time Satan offered him wealth, power and special privilege, Jesus quoted from the Torah, Deuteronomy to be exact, and flatly rejected those offers.
So that’s one answer to the “which Jesus” question. The Jesus I follow does not hold that life is about accumulating wealth, power and special privilege.
So, back to Luke 4, the leader of the synagogue handed Jesus the scroll for the reading that sabbath, and lo and behold, it was Isaiah 61:1-2, which reads (in Luke), “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 and let the oppressed go free.”
And then Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
So, the Jesus whose life and teachings I try to follow is the Jesus who (in the words of a preacher friend of mine, Chuck Poole) “sits down with and stands up for” all those who have been pushed aside, ignored and left to fend for themselves by all the others in their pursuit of wealth, power and privilege.
Turns out, Jesus’ commentary on this passage from the prophet Isaiah got the congregation so riled up that “all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.”
To me, that’s just Jesus, pure and simple, based on what is plain to see in the Gospels. That’s the Jesus whose life and teachings I try to follow and whose life and teachings I let guide my politics. He’s the Jesus who “sits down with and stands up for” all those who have been pushed aside, ignored and left to fend for themselves by all the others in their pursuit of wealth and power.
That’s why my politics supports the generous provision of health care, assertive protection of the environment and the nurturing of allies in pursuit of a peaceful world order. To me, that’s just Jesus, plain and simple.
Richard Conville is professor emeritus of communication studies and service learning at the University of Southern Mississippi and a long-time resident of Hattiesburg, where he is a member of University Baptist Church.