The heart of the God of the Bible has unfortunately too often been at odds even with those who professed to be his own. Sometimes ESPECIALLY with those who claimed the most vehemently to be his devoted followers!

The religious right (whether in its political manifestation or otherwise) has sometimes struck me as being something like what you could call The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Pharisees. I remember reading evangelical commentators as far back as the 1970s --- before the Christina right had even reared its ugly head --- who remarked, point-blank, that if Jesus Christ were to walk the Earth in 20th-century America, it woul dbe the Christian conservatives who would seek to crucify him again. (In the '70s they were saying this! Imagine what they would think today?!)

Meanwhile, for those of a gloomier, end-times outlook, here's another campaign sticker that may be spot-on from another angle ... ;)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bBdagpw-kM0/S_8mxxtNssI/AAAAAAAEMeA/IpE9ZM7tSbA/s1600/TICKLEBEAR%28CROMAGNON%29-SARAH_PALIN-%28WTF!!%29.jpg

If you think hard about it, there was not a real "Christian" Republican president, except for George W. Bush who claimed to be a born-again Christian. Nixon, Reagan, and George Sr. paid lip service to being Christians, but their actions spoke louder than words. But Carter was a deeply religious man and so is Obama. Both are Christians and also independent thinkers who don't blindly follow the narrow teachings of the church.

Mark,

This has to be one of your best articles yet!

The cool thing that if one reads the Tao Te Ching and what it teaches about leaders and countries kinda lines up with the same thing you wrote that Jesus would lead like. There is repeated calls for a leader to have mercy, as one of his values, in the Tao. Sounds quite similar to Jesus.

Thanks for writing this! I've bookmarked it.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. Do you think so?

Preaching to the choir, of course, but that's only because those who need to read this never will, or if they do, might turn purple and explode.

We cannot forget Johnson and his war on poverty and how he created food stamps, Head Start, Medicade and Medicare. And he signed the Civil Right's Act of 1964.

When politicians start talking about religion, there's something else they don't want you watching or thinking about.

"In Luke 20:27-38, Jesus makes it clear that marriage is an institution created by humanity not God."

Those verses say nothing like that, only that remarriage after your spouse's death is allowed, and that nobody is or will get married in Heaven.

If you genuinely believe that marriage is by humans, please see Genesis 2:18-25, Matthew 19:3-6, Mark 10:2-9, and Ephesians 5:31-33.

"Jesus also spent a great deal of his time teaching his disciples (and us) that we are all equal in the eyes of God and should be treated equally."

We are all equal; that is, we are all equally sinful. That's kinda the whole reason Jesus came, died, and rose (Galatians 2:21).

"He also never once said a condemning word about homosexuality."

This is true. However, unless you want to deny biblical infallibility, which by the way, Jesus Himself ascribed to Moses's writings in particular (John 5:46), you must acknowledge that there are other verses in the Bible that say homosexuality is a sin (and that that matters):

- Leviticus 20:13 (the putting to death was only for Israel back then, not us or anybody today)
- Romans 1:26-27
- 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
- 1 Timothy 1:9-10

If you want to try to use semantics and implications to argue that those verses have been wildly mistranslated by pretty much everyone for 2,000-ish years, then please first show me your degree in Greek.

Now once this has been established, I maintain that one can assume it included in every other command to sexual purity, of which there are exceedingly many.

To preempt misunderstanding: I am not encouraging every believer to go run around condemning people. I am simply pointing out that the Bible calls homosexuality a sin, and only then because people deny that it does. So it's a sin, just the same as heterosexual sexual sins. I am not calling it especially wrong; I simply emphatically saying that it is indeed wrong. There's no reason to hate LGBT people; indeed, Christ tells us to love our enemies (if you would even call LGBT people enemies, this applies; if not, then you should love them all the more) in Matthew 5:43-48, Luke 6:27-36, so if somebody thinks it's okay to hate LGBT people, then s/he is not a Christ*ian.

As for DADT, as far as I know, it should be gotten rid of.

As for the next part...there is some disagreement among Christians on how the Bible defines marriage. Some say it's one man, one woman, while others say it's just the becoming one flesh.

A person going by the first definition would say that LGBT people are free to do whatever they want to, but that you just can't call it marriage.

A person going be the second definition would say that the sinfulness of homosexuality does not mean that a homo couple can't get married.

The argument of whether or not we should try to put this into gov't law or only Church rules is another whole separate, messy affair with which I'd rather not bother right now.

Also, to "Roger Smith": thank you!!! I could not agree more.

This may sound trivial, but why would Jesus ever want to be President when He is already King? And, when He does come in complete majesty with full authority, will He not arrive as a conquering commander over an army to vanquish His enemies?