[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help] 

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

From Torah to trauma: A Satanic child abuse scandal blows up in Israel

MAGA Influencer Calls to Deploy Palantir on LA Streets

Egypt detains nearly 200 foreigners who flew in to join Gaza march

FLASHBACK - How Mayor Daley dealt with looters!

Scammers Use AI Bots to Impersonate Students, Stealing Millions in Financial Aid

Bilderberg 2025 begins. Global elites gather in Stockholm. AI, migration, and national security dominate

I Wish We All Could Leave California (Beach Boys Parody)

Exclusive: US slams UN conference on Israel-Palestinian issue, warns of consequences

Brilliant & Critical Insight!

Legal Immigrants Shift to GOP on Immigration, Shows 40-Point Swing from Democrats

American fuel tankers were spotted REFUELING ISRAELI JETS over Syria.

Does Western Civilization Have Enough Belief to Continue to Exist?

Trump CLEARLY KNEW of Israel's Plan To STRIKE IRAN

Trump Warns 'Even More Brutal' Attacks Coming Without Nuclear Deal

10 Supplements That Fight Inflammation

CNN Security Analyst Defends Agents Who Removed Senator Padilla From Kristi Noem Presser

Florida sheriff warns rioters: 'We will kill you graveyard dead'

DEMOCRATS' NIGHTMARE: Viral Video Shows Why They LOST The Election!

Israeli strikes on Iran. Five Waves. Might last 2 weeks?

Images Emerge Of Tehran Destruction After Major Israeli 'Preemptive Attack'

This Is What Happens Next After Israel Bombs Iran’s Nuclear Facilities…

Smartmatic accused of deleting evidence in 27 Billion Fox News Defamation Case Court Docs

White House Fears Iranian Response To An Attack Could Overwhelm Israel's Air Defenses

The Money and Power Behind the Riots: This is No Grass-Roots Movement

D.C. Judge Sides With Trump In Lawsuit Over Control Of Corrupt Foreign Aid Agency

Israel Iran Double Standard

Soros Funneled $8.3M into Leftist Group Trying to Turn Lone Star State Blue

California Democrats Under Fire for Buying Bricks During Protests

ICE Launches Campaign to Crack Down on Marriage Fraud Could Ilhan Omar Finally Face Justice?

Joe Rogan's podcast predicted violent LA riots two years ago leaving viewers stunned


Religion
See other Religion Articles

Title: Jesus' Government
Source: The Reactionary Utopian
URL Source: http://www.sobran.com/columns/index.shtml
Published: Apr 19, 2006
Author: Joseph Sobran
Post Date: 2006-04-19 06:46:17 by Zoroaster
Keywords: None
Views: 97
Comments: 3

The Reactionary Utopian

Jesus’ Government

April 4, 2006

Not again! Another top Republican “denies any wrongdoing,” but resigns his post. As the great American philosopher Jimmy Hatlo used to say, they’ll do it every time.

Why does corruption in government always surprise us? Why do we expect anything else from it? Government is organized force. It takes our wealth and makes war. And we think honest men would do that work?

Well, honest men have sincerely tried, but look at the results and ask yourself whether honesty has any inherent tendency to prevail in politics. War, taxation, waste, debt, inflation, hatred, hypocrisy, cynicism, social disorder. And also — amazingly enough! — corruption.

As I often say, expecting government to produce good results is like expecting a tiger to pull a plow. After the twentieth century, in which the world’s governments killed hundreds of millions of their own subjects, everyone ought to talk about the state the way Jews talk about Hitler. Yet we still have high hopes for this beast, because, after all, the mighty tiger is certainly strong enough to pull that plow if he wanted to! If only.

Even most Christians believe in the state, though Jesus never urged his followers to take political action. A very devout and intelligent Catholic socialist friend of mine argues that Jesus legitimized the state when he said, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

But that’s reading an awful lot into a few words. Jesus wasn’t preaching to his followers at that moment; he certainly wasn’t preaching statism, let alone the authority of pagan emperors who claimed divinity and demanded idolatry. No, he was retorting to a trick question from his enemies, and he answered with a witty tautology. It might have been taken to mean, “Give Caesar everything he claims, and also give God his due.” But it could also mean, “Give Caesar nothing, and God everything.” Or it might mean something else; Jesus didn’t specify.

It was a brilliant ad lib. Jesus’ enemies were trying to bait him into endorsing either idolatry or sedition, and he deftly sidestepped them with a sentence the world still remembers. Not exactly a hearty vote of confidence in those who wield power, it seems to me.

Government doesn’t get much help from the Gospels. Don’t resist evil. Don’t fret about tomorrow. Trust your Father in heaven. The truth will make you free. He who takes up the sword will die by the sword. This is not advice our own Caesars are apt to take.

Jesus did exalt the publican, or tax collector, who prayed, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Today’s publicans, of course, are called “public servants,” and they deny any wrongdoing. Or they have their lawyers deny it for them. Maybe they also let their lawyers handle their carefully worded orisons.

Again, Jesus never used force or the threat of force, except, in a way, when he saw his Father’s house profaned. That was a special case, from which it’s hard to draw general conclusions, but he was acting on his own authority, not acting politically. And he was defying those in power, not supporting them.

In the end, the government murdered him. This fact ought to count for something in any discussion of temporal power. Maybe capital punishment is still justified, even if mistakes are made now and then and the Son of God is accidentally victimized. But I’d start with that accident.

Jesus’ mercy extends readily to the publican and the centurion, but for our time the absence of political rhetoric, or political “solutions” to human problems, is one of the most striking things about the Gospels. The state, taxation, and war are themselves assumed to be perennial problems, and there isn’t the faintest suggestion that “democracy” could relieve them, or turn them into blessings.

Right from the start, Jesus has been a disappointment to anyone hoping for salvation through politics. Many expected the Messiah to bring political and military deliverance — peace through strength, as it were. Instead they got a fiery preacher of peace who resisted the political temptation proffered by Satan, the very temptation the whole world is still succumbing to.

“My government is not of this world.” I think that’s a fair paraphrase of his words.

Joseph Sobran

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest

#1. To: Zoroaster (#0)

Well, honest men have sincerely tried, but look at the results and ask yourself whether honesty has any inherent tendency to prevail in politics. War, taxation, waste, debt, inflation, hatred, hypocrisy, cynicism, social disorder. And also — amazingly enough! — corruption.

War, taxation, waste, debt, inflation, hatred, hypocrisy, cynicism, social disorder, and corruption ... every good Christian "soldier" should take the Sobran lily livered, weak sister approach to our dilemma ... and place all of their pagan easter eggs in the rapture basket !

noone222  posted on  2006-04-19   7:10:04 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Zoroaster (#0)

Joe has it exactly right.

Jesus really meant it when he said "Don’t resist evil." (But this applies to the evil of the state, too.) Be perfect like the Father is perfect -- and He forgives all.

But then it's pretty clear Jesus and early Christians thought the world would end real soon, long before our day.

Not resisting evil visited upon me is something I might be able to do, if I tried very hard. But I just can't be that way with regard to my daughter. If that's sin, so be it.

In this sense true Christianity is naturally self-limiting. But the equilibrium subscription rate to the meme is also apparently nonzero.


No one is more miserable than the person who wills everything and can do nothing.
-- Claudius
According to the socionomic uncertainty principle, the clearer our view of the situation, the less we can do to alter it.
Truth then is not beauty; it is serenity, reserved to the stoic.

Tauzero  posted on  2006-04-19   11:38:51 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Tauzero (#2)

The world will never be perfect. Perhaps, if we're lucky or blessed, we'll ascend to a higher level (not of this earth) and find a more perfect existence.

Life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think.

Zoroaster  posted on  2006-04-19   11:58:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


TopPage UpFull ThreadPage DownBottom/Latest


[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help]