The religious right or left?

[Yorick]

The Religious right or left?

I find it wierd that some here refer to an entity called "the religious right". What is this exactly? A persons politics are different from their faith. Certainly if they are right wingers. It can be argued that IF Jesus teachings fit into a political spectrum it would be to the left. If the Bible was a political manifesto, it would be left wing.

Why then, lump peoples faith in with their politics?

Did I hear laughter?

Consider these points:


Welfare:

1.Common ownership of possessions and welfare for those in need:


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Acts 2: 42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.


Deuteronomy 14: 28-29

At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.


James 1:27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.


1 Timothy 5: 1-4

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.

vs 8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

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2.Subsidised health care:

Mark 6: 54-56

As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went--into villages, towns or countryside--they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

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3.Sponsorship and encouragement of the arts

1 Chronicles 9:33
Those who were musicians, heads of Levite families, stayed in the rooms of the temple and were exempt from other duties because they were responsible for the work day and night

Psalm 47: 6-7
Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth;
sing to him a psalm of praise.

Psalm 9: 11-12
Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, LORD , have never forsaken those who seek you.
Sing praises to the LORD , enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.

1 Chronicles 25: 6-8
All these men were under the supervision of their fathers for the music of the temple of the LORD , with cymbals, lyres and harps, for the ministry at the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman were under the supervision of the king. Along with their relatives - all of them trained and skilled in music for the LORD - they numbered 288. Young and old alike, teacher as well as student, cast lots for their duties.

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4.Personal freedom and social conscience

1 Corinthians 10: 23-24

"Everything is permissible"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"--but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.


Luke 4:18
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
■■■■■■■because he has anointed me
■■■■■■■to preach good news to the poor.
■■■He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
■■■■■■■and recovery of sight for the blind,
■■■to release the oppressed,


Galatians 5:1

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.


2 Corinthians 3:17

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

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5.Egalitarianism


Mark 10

25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

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Matthew 20:1-16

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
"About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went.

"He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'
" 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.
"He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'

"The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."


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2 Corinthians 8: 13-14

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality,

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*****Quite clearly "the religious right" is a myth if it's pertaining to Christianity. If someone is on the right of the political spectrum it has nothing to do with their beliefs in Jesus.*****

[The Hierophant]

You back at uni Yorick? [img]smile.gif[/img] Sounds like a RELS essay [img]smile.gif[/img]
I've never heard the term 'religious right' used, on IW or otherwise. But maybe I havn't been looking in the right places. Has it been a big issue at IW?

[B_part]

Maybe religious are considered right wing because left wing is monoploised by communists, which are against any form of religion save Marxism - Leninism. The religious have always been against communism, so if the comms are left, the christian must be right-wing.

Also, remember the old motto: do as I say, not as I do...

Christ was left wing but his followers are mostly, rich... and things are not gonna change, so I guess right wing religious is the right label

[Stratos]

Strictly layman but still...

Jesus preached a message of social conscience that can be decscribed as radical, even by modern standards. He wanted to help widows, children, old people, sick people etc. the very same people that the left-wingers claim to represent.

The Bible also presented certain values and ideas of what is right and wrong. The modern 'Religiuos Right' want to protect these values while the Left sometimes challenges them. Take same sex marriage, for example. The fact that the Church throughout history has been very rich and powerful and not always on the poor peoples side has had it's part in making the Left, or parts of it, look at the Church with suspicion.

[Yorick]

"The Right" and "The Religious" is far better than "the Religious Right" why even bring religion into politics?

In any case.. most of his followers are rich?? What about the vast numbers of Catholics in South America? What about the hordes of Christians in Africa and Asia? They're not all rich. [img]smile.gif[/img]

To follow Jesus, you can be rich, poor, young, old, left wing, right wing. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do.

I've found I'm often lumped in with "the religious right". Yes I have faith, but my politics are firmly on the left wing thankyou very much. Based actually on my understanding of the Bible to be even further ironic.

But I have friends who are Christian capitalists, tax advisors, ventured capitalists etc. Politics to the left and right, yet all Christian.

What about Franciscan Monks who even now still own no posessions and live in monasteries with shared posessions? Do people call Tibeten Buddhists "the religious right" because they are opposed to Communist China? Are the Falun Gong part of the religious right for the same reason?

Communism and Democratic Socialism are both to the left. One is totalitarian and repressed Christianity and Buddhism, and the other is, as is described, democratic in part and not totalitarian.

To be left wing, you don't have to be Communist, or anti-Christian nor love totalitarianism.

[Yorick]

Originally posted by The Hierophant: You back at uni Yorick? [img]smile.gif[/img] Sounds like a RELS essay [img]smile.gif[/img] I've never heard the term 'religious right' used, on IW or otherwise. But maybe I havn't been looking in the right places. Has it been a big issue at IW?

No... my life is a university. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I notived the phrase used increasingly and with derision, and so pondered it.

[Stratos]

By 'the Church' I meant the leadership, not each individual believer. Sometimes the leadership in a religion, as in politics, forgets the message they're following.

Sorry I should have clarified that. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Yorick]

Originally posted by Stratos: By 'the Church' I meant the leadership, not each individual believer. Sometimes the leadership in a religion, as in politics, forgets the message they're following. Sorry I should have clarified that. [img]smile.gif[/img]

The leadership of the church ARE individual believers. Most Church leaders are the furthest thing from rich, and are well underpaid considering their time, skills, education and position.

They are of course no more perfect than any other believer, and "forget" just like any other imperfect Christian does.

What is different is our expectation of church leaders. That somehow, in Christianity - though perfection is not an objective - the leaders need to be Jesus, instead of merely pointing the way to Jesus.

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by Yorick: "The Right" and "The Religious" is far better than "the Religious Right" why even bring religion into politics?

You got me there but religion is brought into politics as politics is brought into religion.

As for the religious right the only thing I can think about is right wingers who just happens to be religious. Then they make their faith a part of their political campaign. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Chewbacca]

The religious right is an umbrella term to describe a variety of organizations that seek to destroy the seperation of church and state in America, with the intent of creating a Christian theocracy, thereby allowing them to codify their particular set of moral interpretations as the law for the whole of the nation.

See also:
Religious right FAQ

How to fight the religious right

[ 10-25-2003, 04:08 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]