I’ve been thinking about how both political parties agree that federal funds shouldn’t be used for healthcare for undocumented immigrants. To me, that’s wrong, especially coming from people who call themselves Christians.
Over time, I’ve come to realize how far the “Christian Right” has drifted from what Jesus actually taught. They talk a lot about faith, but very little about love. I’ve changed my view on Paul, I still think he’s important, but I focus on what Jesus said. In the version of Christianity shaped by Paul’s letters, the way to heaven is “faith alone.” Love becomes optional. And when I bring up the lack of love, I’m told, “That was the old covenant.”
But that misses the point entirely. In the new covenant, God writes the law on our hearts, and that law is summed up in two simple commands: Love God and love your neighbor. If someone’s heart lacks that love, then, as James said, their faith is dead.
The Christian Right’s worldview is built on individualism, the idea that everyone should be self-sufficient and that helping others makes them dependent. But that’s not Christianity. That’s selfishness dressed up as holiness. Jesus taught self-giving, not self-protection.
How can they think what Jesus taught is the “old covenant”? Easy, the gospel of Jesus is very different from the interpreted gospel of Paul. If you look closely, Jesus’s gospel already contains it all, the moral law (summed up in love) and the faith (in John 3:16). Paul might have meant the same thing, but even Peter said people misunderstand him. James tried to correct that misunderstanding, but mainstream Christianity became Pauline instead of Christ-like.
Maybe if we actually followed what Jesus said, love God, love your neighbor, we wouldn’t be so eager to deny healthcare, compassion, or dignity to anyone.
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