Seriously: What WOULD Jesus Do? March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 Trump’s lawyer argues she’s not liable for slander because no reasonable person could possibly have believed her crazy claims on Trump’s behalf. Or something like that. How did our country ever become such a — temporary, let us pray — clown show? And since prayer alone may not do the trick, click here. Speaking of prayer, consider Nick Kristof’s latest, excerpted here from the indispensable New York Times: Progressive Christians Arise! Hallelujah! [With a churchgoing Democrat in the White House, faith becomes more complicated in America. Thank God.] Young and middle-aged Americans could be forgiven for thinking that Jesus was a social conservative who denounced gay people and harangued the poor to lift themselves up by the bootstraps, until he was crucified for demanding corporate tax cuts. That perception might arise because since the 1980s, the most visible Christians have been conservative evangelicals who often emphasize issues that Jesus never explicitly mentioned, such as abortion and homosexuality. But now more progressive Christians are moving onto center stage. Enter Joe Biden, one of the most religious presidents of the last century. . . . Yet the Trumpian wing of evangelicalism is doubling down. Pastor Rick Joyner, a prominent evangelical leader, said this month that Christians should acquire weapons to prepare for a civil war that is now inevitable. . . . Jerushah Duford, a granddaughter of the Rev. Billy Graham . . . compares the damage right-wing Christian extremists have done to Christianity to the harm Muslim extremists have brought to Islam. . . . The progressive wing of Christianity is not, of course, new. It began with Jesus. “Woe to you that are rich,” Jesus says (Luke 6:24). He advises a rich ruler to “sell everything you have and give to the poor,” and then suggests “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:22-25). . . . “My hope is that we move into a season where Jesus followers are no longer seen as synonymous with hate, exclusion and hypocrisy, but as beacons of love and grace,” Duford said, noting that her famous grandfather focused on a message about God’s love. . . . Would Jesus have rejected Medicaid expansion? Opposed relief to struggling families? Opposed reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act? Opposed honoring the fallen Capitol police? Armed himself with assault weapons? Cited scripture to justify slavery? To justify discrimination? With which group on the Edmund Pettus Bridge would he have aligned himself? The state troopers? Are these even close questions? Have a great day.