(ANTIMEDIA) According to a poll published by ABC News, 83 percent of the United States – a country with over 300 million people – identifies as Christian. That is a staggering amount of people who profess to follow the techings of Jesus. Given the sheer size of the faith’s constituents, it would be naive to assume Christianity stays out of American politics.
But what exactly does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to follow the work and teachings of Jesus Christ?
If one were to summarize the teachings of Jesus, the core tenets would arguably be: humility (Matthew 18: 1-4); being righteous (Matthew 13: 36-43); obeying and doing God’s will (Mark 12: 28-30); forgiveness (Matthew 6: 14-15); putting God before all else, including money (Luke 16:13); prayer (Matthew 7:7-11); loving your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10: 25-37; Matthew 7:12); and helping the needy (Matthew 25: 31-46).
As Jesus famously said:
“[I]t is the thought-life that pollutes. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, and all other folly. All these vile things come from within; they are what pollute you and make you unfit for God.”
Despite the wise teachings of this somewhat historically disputed figure, a poll conducted by the American Bible Society found the majority of Americans regard the Bible highly — but only about a third of them read it on a weekly basis. The majority of Americans read the Bible four times a year or less.
It wouldn’t be at all surprising if current presidential front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump fell into the category of those who hardly ever pick up the Bible. It shouldn’t matter, of course – I’d rather pick up Harry Potter – except for the fact that they both profess to be devout Christians. If that is the case, based on what we do know about Jesus and his teachings, who would Mr. Christ endorse in the 2016 elections?
To some extent, this is a no-brainer. For example, Trump’s proposed immigration policies would make Jesus ineligible for entry into the United States. Trump’s obsession with money, greed, and exploiting others runs polar opposite to Jesus’ life teachings. As stated by the Daily Beast:
“The very voices who once bemoaned ‘the death of outrage’ over Americans’ opposition to criminalizing Bill Clinton’s sex life now want us to believe that Donald J. Trump is morally fit to occupy the Oval Office.
“Which is odd, because Trump is a living repudiation of everything religious conservatives claim to believe in. A thrice-married, epically greedy, congenitally dishonest serial adulterer who brags about his sexual conquests and exalts the rich and powerful while heaping scorn upon the weak and vulnerable, Trump is the villain of Sunday school parables made real. He worships not the Lord but material wealth. His entire life is a rejection of the Judeo-Christian nostrum that God put us on this earth to help those less fortunate than ourselves…Trump says he’s never asked God for forgiveness, which should hardly come as a surprise considering that he has probably never asked anyone for forgiveness, let alone a higher power.”
On the other hand, Hillary Clinton’s hawkish foreign policy ambitions would most likely see Jesus on the receiving end of a tomahawk missile. It is argued that throughout his life, Jesus traveled at least 3,000 miles around the Middle East, reaching as far as Southern Lebanon. The Gaza strip, a place repeatedly bombed by a nation with strong ties to Clinton, is only 46 miles from Jesus’ supposed birthplace.
If he did manage to survive the current Middle Eastern political climate, the idea that Jesus would endorse Clinton is untenable given his distaste for lust, theft, murder, wickedness, deceit, pride, and envy.
Clinton is by all accounts a mass murderer who is married to another accomplished mass murderer. Clinton’s leaked emails revealed that her hawkish push to “intervene” in Libya was not out of concern for human rights but because Muammar Gaddafi posed a threat to American and European hegemony due to his desire to unite Africa under a single currency that would be tied to gold.
Furthermore, when Gaddafi was bombed by a U.S. drone and then captured by al-Qaeda-affiliated rebels before being summarily executed on the streets of Sirte (some reports state he was raped by a bayonet), Clinton’s response was to literally laugh hysterically.
How Christian of her.
So who would Jesus endorse in 2016?
The facts speak for themselves. Jesus was a man of the poor, not the rich. He was a man of peace, not of war. He helped those in need and did not shun them away. According to CNBC, Wall Street – famously known for taking the public for a ride – has given Hillary Clinton $27 million USD to support her campaign. Donald Trump is a billionaire who refuses to help others in desperate need of a new life in the United States (but has no problem exploiting them).
At no point in the Bible does Jesus endorse this behavior. His life’s work was not only to promote the complete opposite of the values Clinton and Trump embody, but also to stand up to oppressive, greedy, and wicked overlords like the two current presidential contenders currently vying for power.
If you feel compelled to support one of these candidates because of the “lesser of two evils” reasoning, bear in mind there are other, less greedy and less violent candidates to support.
Or you could just not vote at all — a strategy approximately half of Americans have adopted in recent times.
This article (Who Would Jesus Support in the 2016 Election?) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Darius Shahtahmasebi and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org.