On our Facebook page last week various people said, in response to one of our posts:
Really? This is supposed to be ‘Anglican’ Memes and Humour, not ‘Politically-slanted’ Memes and Humour. This really annoys me.
Anglican Memes….please stick to religious themes…not left-wing political talking points…
Stay out of politics please, low blow and judgmental. There is the other Bible passage that says if a man doesn’t work he doesn’t eat ..Disappointed in you .One can twist scripture to ones views .
So here is our reply:
Brilliant! Anyone who thinks Jesus doesn’t do politics clearly hasn’t read the Gospels! The Lord’s Prayer itself is a massive political statement and the cartoons you show above just show how political he was!
Ditto the sermon on the mount and Jesus’s mission statement at the synagogue in Nazareth.
Of course Jesus did politics! He doesn’t seem to be that concerned about Rome but the Jewish theocracy was still in place under Roman rule, as local rulers were usually in all their subject states. And his attitude to that theocracy was pretty similar to stuff I see addressed to politicians on facebook. ‘Ye brood of vipers’ for instance.
Jesus was SO polite, I guess he never talked about religion or money either…
I love these – keep them coming!
This is so apt that I wish I could “like” it twice. If Jesus didn’t “do” politics, then what was all the social justice stuff He talked about?
Read J P Yoder’s classic book – read way back but title something like “The Politics of Jesus” It blew any doubts I had that Jesus “did” politics! He had more to say about economics and politics than about many other things.
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I completely agree, but some of the so called Christian political posts are merely attacks on people’s views they disagree with, often with ad hominem insults. How can this be Christian? Jesus said Mt 5:21 “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgement.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matt 5;21-22) Jesus only really laid into the Pharisees and teachers of the law and pronounced judgement at the end of his ministry when he, as the only one qualified to do so, was pronouncing judgement on those who had resisted him (Matthew 23) The rest of us are commanded to ‘take the beam out of our own eyes before taking specks out of others eyes (Matthew 7:1-5), and not to judge. Why is it, that among political posts, and especially from Christian socialists, there is a harsh judgementalism on those they disagree with? I minister in a white working class outer urban estate, and political posts that just ridicule the other side just put people i work with off the message – they especially fed up with being called fools for voting Brexit- surely political posts from Christians ought to be encouraging and affirming of the good on our own side, rather than judging and ridiculing those we disagree with?