Excellent article, I strongly recommend it as Christian food-for-thought. The Libertarian From Nazareth http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/butler-b1.html Introduction Any thoughts on this?
Yeah... jesus is many things to many people To those who want to paint ..... all the world's a canvas
Racially, he may have been a Jew, however religiously he was by definition, a Christian. This is a question about his political beliefs. And the article asserts that his beliefs were most consistent with libertarianism.
Jesus was clearly a socialist: "The meek shall inherit the earth" "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." "For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Tense. In this case, past tense. He was born and raised a Jew. There was no "Christian" at least not as we define it today back then. Well, Jesus did have a friend by the name of Paul.
Those aren't arguments for socialism. Libertarianism is for charity, simple lifestyles, fulfilling moral duties. Understanding economics or being a capitalist is not inherently evil. In fact, without capitalism, we couldn't provide any charity.
Mia, by definition Jesus was a Christian if he believed he was the Son of God. He may have racially been a Jew, but Jews obviously do not believe he is the Messiah, so he would have had to disbelieve in himself as the Son of God to be Jewish. Anyway, I think the argument for Christian libertarianism is very good. I only found out recently that there is a pretty significant tradition of Catholic Anarchists.
He's not talking about charity, he's talking about austerity. His position on economic issues (following the sources) were anything about tolerant of capitalism. He harassed the money lenders and importuned people to give up all their wealth-not just a tax-deductible fraction of it. Capitalism and economics are part of the wordly things he's saying to give up. You can doublethink it all you want, but modern fiscal hypocritianity is something that old Yheshuah would puke on. Capitalism is a system of organized usury. I'm not big on good and evil, since these are fake concepts, but you must be pretty limber to wrap your mind around such a conclusion. Libertarians are for limited government. Jesus may or may not have supported that, but he is much, much more likely to favor minimum wage, social security, and corporate taxation. After all, he also said, "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's". Some Libertarian!
Jesus was a jew but he also came to add to judaism. Remember the new testament is tied to the old testament but he also added many things like his saying of offering the other cheek to be slapped. I believe this is the level of love compared to the "EYE FOR AN EYE" which is just simple revenge and doesnt allow a person to grow spiritually in love within their hearts. Jesus took his followers to the next level. Yes Jesus i believe was a libertarian because of his belief in individual freedom. While he did say render onto ceasar what is rightfully ceasars, it didnt mean he agreed with ceasars occupation at all. On the contrary, he felt pity for the romans because they worshipped an emperial power that forced its idealogy upon the jews and other people yet the roman citizens and army themselves werent totally free because they themselves believed that freedom could only come through force, and we all know that this is wrong. I wonder who in this day and age is trying to enforce their version of freedom upon another country Hey neocons can i get an answer to this question I really believe that if jesus were alive today he would vote for Ron Paul for these and many other sound practical reasons. Does anyone think jesus would caste his vote for someone that is in the backpockets of the pharasees ,err opps i meant special interest groups
IMHO it is bizzare when people try and turn a religeous figure into a political figure. In fact, in America it turns out bad. In fact internationally and historically it leads to violence, killing, etc. Its such a horrible twisting of the orientation of a religeous leader. One of the more refreshing aspects of the Pope's visit to the US and to DC where he met with the President was how remarkably different he was in manner and presentation. The Pope came into the US and spent a lot of time apologizing and making amends for the crisis with regard to priests who abused kids. He addressed the issue directly. He accepted blame. In a speech with the Pope next to him Bush couldn't help but throw in the word "terrrorism". He can't get away from the phrase no matter what he is doing. Of course there is only a couple of thousand years of violence and warfare connected to religeon and politics. Its such a disservice to religeon to twist it into someone's political agenda.
Yea the pope really shocked me by staying out of politics and yes so many wars were attributed to and used by some supposedly religious people as an excuse to kill. Just ask yourself, what would jesus or buddha do ? Would they rally us into war for these reasons?
If you read the article, you wouldn't have responded with this. Two things are obvious. 1. You don't know what a libertarian is, and 2. You have no idea what capitalism is, except used as a twisted epithet by socialist fanatics. Without capitalism, there is no charity. Without capitalism, there is no technological or societal progress. These are the facts.