Posted on 10/21/2011 10:57:17 AM PDT by Pride_of_the_Bluegrass
Last December, GOP presidential contender Herman Cain penned an interesting article about Jesus Christ that has been resurrected (no pun intended) and is getting some attention in the blogosphere. Published just five days before Christmas, the piece claims that Jesus was “a perfect conservative” and that “he…changed the world for the better.”
In his article, Cain goes on to explain, though, the reasons why he believes that to be true. He writes:
He helped the poor without one government program. He healed the sick without a government health care system. He [fed] the hungry without food stamps. And everywhere He went, it turned into a rally, attracting large crowds, and giving them hope, encouragement and inspiration. For three years He was unemployed, and never collected an unemployment check. Nevertheless, he completed all the work He needed to get done. He didn’t travel by private jet. He walked and sailed, and sometimes traveled on a donkey.
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
Neither Republicans nor Democrats nor Independents can save us. So, no Jesus is not coming as a Republican anymore than the coast guard comes with lead life rafts.
Such criticisms as may come from the Left on Cain's remarks are expected. They may remind us of the historical ignorance the Left displayed when George W. Bush gave his honest answer to a debate question about his favorite political philosopher.
Thomas Jefferson, that former President the Left loves to quote when they try to exclude references to "God" from the public square, wrote extensively about the superiority of the philosophy of Jesus, but we never hear about that from the Left.
The same Jefferson who penned our Declaration of Independence wrote that Jesus "preached philanthropy and universal charity and benevolence," that "a system of morals is presented to us [by Jesus], which, if filled up in the style and spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man."
He wrote, "His moral doctrines...were more pure and perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers...and they went far beyond both in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, charity, peace, common wants, and common aids" which, Jefferson said, "will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over all others."
Comparing the Hebrew code which, according to Jefferson, "laid hold of actions only," "He [Jesus] pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man; erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head."
That Jefferson cut out the statements which could be directly attributable to Jesus, pasted them into a little book which he kept by his bed and read from them daily, attests to the fact that his political philosphy may have been influenced by what he considered to be the superiority of the "philosophy" of Jesus.
It is unlikely that any person alive today, including the current President, has read the writings of as many of the great philosophers as Jefferson. His talents and abilities were legend. His devotion to liberty and to the ideas essential to liberty were based on simple principles, some of which, undoubtedly, came from his understanding of the basic law underlying all valid human law: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." As Jefferson stated it, "No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him."
Jefferson seemed to understand that the philosophy encapsulated in those ideas has the power to make people in a society more benevolent, more loving, more caring, and more willing to take care of each other voluntarily.
America's Founders believed that if I wish to help my neighbor ("neighbor" being a term for any individual), I have the right to give of my own earnings or property, and/or request voluntary donations by my other neighbors and ask them for their assistance. If they refuse, I do not have the legal right to enter their property and coercively to "take" from them to help others. The Founders reasoned, then, that to do so would make me criminally liable under the law.
Under their Constitution, there was no provision which allowed my representatives in government, at my request, either individually or as part of a lobbying group, to pass laws to do that which would be illegal and punishable by law, were I to do it myself.
No matter how admirable or worthy the cause or the rhetoric, voluntary charity is one thing: advocating the political use of coercive government power to pick the pockets of our neighbors without calling it robbery is another (Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett made a speech on the floor of the Congress called "Not Yours to Give" which summarized the constitutional validity of the latter idea.
Aw come on bigger than Peter the Hermit and François Leclerc du Tremblay??
Perspective is everything.
Cain is an embicile.
Jesus was neither liberal nor conservative. He was and is DIVINE. Politics is of this world, but Jesus was not. He is of the next world.
Cain is clueless about a great many things.
From what I’ve read, the Pharisees made up extra rules and demanded others follow them. Sounds pretty liberal to me.
He was probably also the very first vegan and let everybody know it at every opportunity.
Do not confuse the concept of political with the concept of secular. Politics of every era has to do with religion, it always has and it always will.
You’ve just got to see #60 about ObamaCare preexisting medical condition. :>)
Interesting. Thank you for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!
He helped the poor without one government program. He healed the sick without a government health care system. He [fed] the hungry without food stamps. And everywhere He went, it turned into a rally, attracting large crowds, and giving them hope, encouragement and inspiration. For three years He was unemployed, and never collected an unemployment check. Nevertheless, he completed all the work He needed to get done. He didn't travel by private jet. He walked and sailed, and sometimes traveled on a donkey.
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