I ask this question often and get strange answers. I believe the biblical jesus was a radical liberal
Jesus was said to hate the government and he never tolerated injustice, remained steadfast on equality and so on.
To think that he was conservative is just wrong.
Amidst the countless contradictions in the Bible, one consistent message is that rich people who do not give generously to the poor are bad. Rich people are always portrayed in a negative light in Bible stories.
The dictionary defines a liberal as one who is tolerant. But the word is changing as all living language is fluid. The conservatives rage against my definition tho they are hardly a tolerant bunch. They are the ones who wish to prevent progress. Opposing racial integration, voting rights, supported the Vietnam War, were anti cannabis,agaist women & gay advancements inequality, they are pro corporation, & anti union. The ultra left is not liberal as they don't tolerate any discourse from the right, especially on campus. So good luck in your search for liberalism.
@Lonely Not totally wrong. But a healthy lifestyle is your choice. What may be healthy for you is not unhealthy for others. Imposing your values on others might not be in their best interests. Prostitution is someones own decision & the government should not impose legalities but only regulation. Alcohol is used by many responsibly & the debacle of the 14th Amendment is evident in historical terms. Cannabis was erroneously lumped in with truly addictive substance,s in an archaic system that has filled our privately owned prisons with non violent folks who wish to imbibe a medicinal & non addictive mind lifting plant. Cannabis has killed no one where as tobacco kills 420,000 folks annually. To impose ones own values on others is a denial of individual choice. One has no right to such impositions in this country & we are moving towards that end. Cannabis has many beneficial properties. Pain relief, anti inflammatory, mood elevation, cancer cell destruction. Big pharma & the vice industry do not want the competition from a plant one can grow in their back yard as my great grandmother did. The most dangerous element of cannabis is its illegality.
To think that it is real and had thoughts is just wrong.
He didn't exist.
I realize he did not exist however there remains a world based upon this myth. And it is a world that condemns people.
My only point is that in modern times they, the alt right , continue to debase liberals and yet I assert that jesus was just that.
@EMC2
Yes. I agree.
Do you think the Buddha ,Muhammad and other religious leaders existed? Or is it just Jesus.
There are scholarly videos to be found on YouTube about the subject. I started watching one of them, a presentation by an author who'd spent years researching the subject. After a while of listening to him I had no doubt that Jesus never existed. He was historicised.
There is also a website called [jesusneverexisted.com] which is a fabulous resource.
I wouldn't be surprised if Buddha actually did exist, because he wasn't supernatural in any way. There are no deities in Buddhism.
"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar"--Jesus the Taxman
"You think I come to bring peace on Earth? I come not to bring peace on Earth but a sword"--Jesus
There are more than enough contradictory things coming out of Jesus moth in the text for you to twist Dogma to form left or right, and it has been done in History.
Jesus was both Pro and Anti slavery during the civil war.
Well, let's see, does the idea that he had apparently nothing against slavery have any importance? The character as presented in the bible never once explicitly renounced any of the Hebrew scriptures -- "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, not one jot nor one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
~Matthew 5:18
I've heard all the interpretations attempting to do away with this, but they don't wash. Sorry, folks, but the dead Jew on the stick was in no way the fulfillment of all. His anger with the money changers was not because he was against taxes or money changers, but because they were not acting in accordance with the ancient Hebrew law regarding money lenders and they were operating inside the temple.
No, I'm afraid the Jesus character was a confusing mix of the two ideas. Strong elements of liberal mixed in with an overwhelming amount of conservative, barbaric early law. Too confusing for me.
I tell people "Jesus fed the poor and healed the sick regardless of how much they 'earned it' or deserved it." And they get so mad "NUH UH JESUS DID NOT"
And that's when I give up because obviously they never read the bible and are fake christian hypocrites which are the worst kinds of christians.