Political "sides"

It is interesting to note that certain groups on American politics lump just about every enemy
to their way of thinking into one group; Communist = Socialist = Fascists = Leftists = Marxist =
Terrorist = Pacifist = the enemy of the month club.

Some of those groups ideas overlap but some, like Communists and Fascists, are completely opposite (see WWII). Why is this interesting to me? Because I love history (learning how different ideas develop) and I love to poke holes in shallow rhetoric (usually rhetoric meant to scare people into war).

So with that said, here's an interesting historical and biblical nugget from The Christian Left.

“The right is always the party sector associated with the interests of the upper or dominant classes, the left the sector expressive of the lower economic or social classes, and the center that of the middle classes. Historically this criterion seems acceptable. The conservative right has defended entrenched prerogatives, privileges and powers; the left has attacked them. The right has been more favorable to the aristocratic position, to the hierarchy of birth or of wealth; the left has fought for the equalization of advantage or of opportunity, for the claims of the less advantaged. Defense and attack have met, under democratic conditions, not in the name of class but in the name of principle; but the opposing principles have broadly corresponded to the interests of the different classes.”

You can read the entire article here (and I'd recommend the time to read it)

I think they raise some interesting points. Jesus clearly was on the side of the outcast and oppressed. But I still see a few problems:

1) Rhetoric aside, the Democratic Party isn't for the poor and oppressed anymore than the Republican party really wants to end abortion. It's all rhetoric to buy votes.

2) We cannot expect a secular government to act according to the teachings of Jesus.
With that said, we can expect CHRISTIANS to act according to the teachings of Jesus. No matter what the government says, Christians are to be on the side of the poor and to be peacemakers who love their (and their government's) enemies.

And here's another interesting read on the rise of American Fascism as spurred on by the Religious Right. link