Following up on yesterday’s blog reporting on the verbal exchanges involving Bill O’Reilly, Stephen Colbert and Bernie Goldberg involving the question of whether Jesus would side with liberals or conservatives on questions involving taxes and government spending, here are some of my thoughts and comments.

1. The debate actually began when U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) went on a cable news program and said “This is Christmas time. We talk about good Samaritans, the poor, the little
baby Jesus in the cradle and all this stuff. And then we say to the unemployed
we won’t give you a check to feed your family. That’s simply
wrong.”

Comment: For the record, even as a conservative, I believe that extending unemployment benefits is the right thing to do. While Republicans have a point that ideally the extension should be paid for by cuts elsewhere, I don’t think you start playing hardball here. At least unemployment goes directly toward help many people who are hurting — and are, perhaps, hurting as a direct result of government policies that created the current high unemployment situation.

On the other hand, it seems that liberals are fine with liberals injecting Christianity into a political debate but tend to find it inappropriate when conservatives do.

2. Bill O’Reilly weighed in next with in his newspaper column that “Every fair-minded person should support government safety nets for people who
need assistance through no fault of their own. But guys like McDermott
and his allies don’t make such distinctions. For them, the baby Jesus wants us
to provide, no matter what the circumstance. But being a Christian, I
know that while Jesus promoted charity at the highest level, he was not
self-destructive. The Lord helps those who help themselves. Does he
not?”

Comment: I think Bill’s point is generally valid. A compassionate society needs to provide for the needy. That is certainly a fair and honorable use of our taxes. But taxation is the taking of other people’s money which places a moral burden on government to spend it wisely and to truly help the truly needy. Too often that’s not the case as the government throws (other people’s money) at social problems with little regard for outcome.

As to the idea that “That Lord helps those who help themselves” (which as Stephen Colbert points out was said by Benjamin Franklin, not Jesus) that’s true — but the danger of taking that idea too far is that it can lead to the judging of those who fall on hard times.  As it says in the Good Book “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
righteous and the unrighteous.”  While I believe God does protect those who put their trust in Him from ultimate harm, bad things do happen to good people (and even good people make bad mistakes). It’s how we deal with them that can often make the difference — and turn our trials into ultimate blessings.

3. In responding to O’Reilly, Stephen Colbert (on his Colbert Report) played a clip of conservative Bernie Goldberg saying on The O’Reilly Factor that “As a matter of fact, you know, Jesus probably would be — except for one or two
issues — a liberal Democrat if He were around today.”

Goldberg’s point (as he notes in his blog) was that he doesn’t care what the Bible says about our current tax policy, considering it pretty much irrelevent regarding such matters. He then made his suggestion that Jesus would, on most issues, side with liberal Democrats.

Comment: As a Christian I, of course, find it very relevant to consider how Jesus would view the issues of the day. Fortunately, I find Jesus, the Constitution and the concept of a seperation between church and state (“Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”) to be all simpatico.

As to the question of whether Jesus would be a liberal Democrat or a conservative Republican, I think it only leads to self righteousness on both sides. We all bring our perspectives to any debate but Jesus (God) sees the whole picture. My own feeling is that maybe that’s the spiritual lesson of democracy — that we learn to listen to each other without judgement so that we may solve the issues that confront us. We all hold a part of the puzzle but only by working together (and allowing ourselves to see things from the other’s point of view) will we really move forward on economic, national security and social issues.

It’s been said that you can usually find two time-tested adages that say exactly opposite things (i.e. “Hard work never killed anybody” and “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”). It’s not that one is right and one is wrong. When taken together, they balance each other. So it is with us.