When Did Jesus Become a Republican?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit; for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to them”. What if I told you that quote belongs to former Vice-President Dick Cheney? You don’t believe me? You shouldn’t. The only blessed poor people Cheney knows are the ones who get to cut his lawn, or wash his Rolls Royce. The quote of course is from Matthew 5:3 of the New Testament and it is credited to Jesus Christ.

How ridiculous was the notion that the quote was Cheney’s? Could you even imagine those words coming out of the mouth of the de facto leader of the Republican Party? Of course not! You are as likely to see Cheney walk down the street hand in hand with another man, than hear him mutter those words. So why is it that the Christian Right, the folks who currently own and operate the GOP, gravitate to politicians like Cheney? Are the Republicans the party you associate with helping the poor and less fortunate? No, and that’s because the original messages of Christ don’t apply to these Evangelicals when it comes to politics. It’s about two things now; homosexuality, and abortion.

If you are a Christian Evangelical, homosexuality and abortion don’t even affect you. You aren’t going to be gay, and you won’t ever choose to have an abortion. So it really goes back to the fact they want the power to tell other people they can’t be gay, and they can’t have abortions. They are imposing their beliefs on those who don’t share their beliefs. Folks, that’s not democracy, that’s fascism.

Maybe what bothers me the most is the extraordinary effort and resources they commit to persecute such a minority of people. They are concerned about gays, which make up approximately 2.5% of the U.S population, and abortions which happen in about 13 of 1000 pregnancies in the U.S. You mean to tell me that out of all of these Evangelicals, not one person stepped up and said, “Uh, you guys do realize we are only talking about a handful of people here right?” We now have a party in this country that cares more about impeding the rights of 3% of the population than they do about tending to the needs and rights of the remaining 97% of the population. Well, when I put it that way; that does actually sound like something Dick Cheney would do.

I'll leave you with a quote from Thomas Jefferson:

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes."