Liberty Univ Alumnus: Sanders called us out on our hypocrisy. He has my vote.

[Catherina]

"There is a bibilical argument for voting for Bernie Sanders"

Audio here: https://clyp.it/eusxalwe

Transcript a Bernie supporter was kind enough to transcribe:

Hi my name is Jim. I am the guy who recently posted onto Reddit under the Sanders4President Subreddit that I’m a Liberty University Alumni, and that I support Bernie, and think that he’s a good spokesman for justice.

I thought I would take a second to, sort of, unpack that, because I could tell there’s a lot of people, both Evangelical conservative folk and more liberal Bernie-supporting folk, who are very confused that I could occupy both worlds. So, I thought, I’ll take a few seconds and explain myself, and maybe that will be helpful for the conversation.

So a little bit about me. I am not a current student at Liberty. If I was, I actually wouldn’t have been able to post onto that Reddit board and say that I’m supporting Bernie. There is an Honor Code at Liberty University, and while it’s not always enforced, if you support a candidate who is pro-choice or pro-gay marriage, you can be punished by the University, up to and including expulsion from the school. So as a graduate of Liberty University, I’m in a good position to represent folks that might go there and people from the Evangelical tradition, but not be within the world that they can, you know, punish me for my opinion.

So I got my Bachelors degree in Religion from Liberty University, and I also got my Masters degree from Liberty University in Marriage and Family Therapy. In 2004 I worked for the George W. Bush campaign. I spent about 8 years as a Conservative pastor. And also as a schoolteacher at a conservative Christian academy. And today I serve my community as a therapist and also a pastoral counselor, somebody that folks from churches might go see to get counseling whenever they want to see somebody who’s both a clinical counselor but also a pastor.

So I serve all those roles. I think I’m pretty much a card-carrying Evangelical Christian. I still subscribe to a conservative evangelical theology. And what that means, a lot of people get confused when they hear the word ‘conservative,’ they assume you mean politically. ‘Conservative theology’ means that I believe the Bible is trustworthy, I think that God inspired it, Jesus was absolutely real, and really died on the cross, and really did resurrect three days later; and I am an Evangelical Christian in that way.

So, how did I come to find myself supporting Bernie Sanders? How did that evolution take place? How could it be that in 2004 I was working for the George W. Bush campaign, and today in 2015, as a double Liberty University graduate, under Jerry Falwell—when I went to school, Jerry Falwell was the Chancellor—how is it that I could be now supporting Bernie Sanders, who’s a very progressive, very liberal guy; he describes himself as a ‘democratic socialist.’ How do I find common ground on those two things?

Well a lot of people I think falsely believe that in order to do that you have to give up one of your sides. Either you have to not really be a progressive, and you’re just an Evangelical who just likes Bernie, or you have to not really be an Evangelical, and just secretly be a Progressive who’s faking it and pretending to be an Evangelical, but wouldn’t actually pass the litmus test of being an Evangelical.

I pass both tests, I am very much 100% legitimate in both camps, and I want to explain why that’s not a mythological thing, that’s not a disconnect. Some people call that a contradiction, or hypocrisy, it is absolutely not. I believe that my views are 100% consistent. And so I think that the shock value for that comes in beginning to appreciate that the Bible and Jesus, in my opinion and in my very moderate reading of the Bible and the words of Christ, leads us to a Progressive worldview. And that is shocking to a lot of people, especially folks back home in the Evangelical community, they hear that and go, “What are you talking about? That’s heresy—“ it’s like, hold on. Hear me out. There is a Biblical argument for voting for Bernie Sanders, believe it or not, and I’m gonna walk you through it really quick on some key issues.

So that first issue that I’d kind of point your attention to is kind of what Bernie brought up during his speech at Liberty. Basically, the wealth inequality problem—and see a lot of us, on the Evangelical side think that what Jesus really cares about is gay marriage and abortion. And of course, the great irony is if you read the red letters of Jesus, there are no statements on abortion. There are no statements on gay marriage. Now, that’s not to say the Bible doesn’t speak about these things, but it certainly is to say that Jesus, founder and master of our faith, did not see fit to make these high-priority topics. It’s not to say he doesn’t care. But it is to say that we need to be careful not to ‘major on minors.’ We should be focused on the things Jesus did talk about.

So what did Jesus talk about?

So here’s the interesting thing. When I was watching Bernie Sanders talk at Liberty University, I was just really shocked, and something kind of magical happened for me, because as I watched that guy stand up on that stage, here’s what I saw. I saw a wild-haired Jew crying out in a hoarse voice, in a very forceful and forth-speaking way, he was convicting the Christian leaders and religious leaders in that University and calling us out for being complicit in the abandonment of those who suffer: “The least of these.” And siding with the powerful and the rich and the masters of this world. And he was convicting us, and calling us out. And we scorned him, and we stared him down, and with sour faces we thought, “Who is this whacko? And why do all these people seem to follow him, seem to like him? This wild-haired Jew, crying out from the wilderness of the political Left, in his hoarse voice?”

And if you’re an Evangelical listening to me today, you already know where I’m going with this. When I heard Bernie speaking in that way, when I saw that guy on stage at Liberty University, I saw John the Baptist. I saw the wild-haired, roughly-clothed John the Baptist, eating honey and wearing camel’s hair, and crying out to the religious leaders, the Pharisees of his day, calling them corrupt and complicit with those who have all the power and all the money and all the wealth, and for abandoning the people that God loves, that God cares about. For the Pharisees, who were siding with those who already have power and wealth and saying that they will be the last in the Kingdom of God, and that the weak, and the meek, and the simple, and those who need help—they are first in the Kingdom of God.

And I saw that guy, that John the Baptist figure, who is standing up and saying “There is coming a messenger, there is coming a messenger who will bring equity and justice to the poor, and to the weak, and who will stand for ’the least of these.’” That’s the wild-haired Jew that I saw up on that stage. I saw, and felt, the same voice coming from the Bible when I read about John the Baptist, who cried out in the desert to the Pharisees, warning them that Jesus was coming, the messenger of God. And that he was coming to restore justice, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and to value ’the least of these’ when the Pharisees had failed.

And as I heard Bernie talking, and as I listened to his cries for justice, I remembered, suddenly, what Jesus had actually said in the Book of Luke, when he unravels the scroll in the synagogue, and he quotes the Book of Isaiah, which says that the Son of God was coming. And then he says, “This has been fulfilled in your presence here today.” He quotes the book of Isaiah which says that the Son of God is coming to bring justice, and Jesus says “it is now come to pass in your presence.” And he says, “I have come to bring Gospel to the poor.”

Gospel—is that word we Evangelical Christians have based everything on. Gospel means ‘good news.’ And Jesus said “I have come to bring good news to the poor.” To restore sight to the blind, to stand with the suffering, to set the captives free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Whoa.

As I heard Bernie Sanders crying out to the religious leaders at Liberty University, in his hoarse voice, with his wild hair, this Jew, and he proclaimed justice over us. He called us to account for being complicit with those who are wealthy and those who are powerful and for abandoning the poor, ‘the least of these’ who Jesus said he had come to bring good news to. And in that moment, something occurred to me, as I saw Bernie Sanders up there, as I watched him I realized: Bernie Sanders, for President, is good news for the poor. Bernie Sanders for President is good news for the poor. Bernie Sanders is Gospel for the poor. And Jesus said, “I have come to bring Gospel—good news—to the poor.”

And lightning hit my heart in that moment. And I realized that we are Evangelical Christians, that we believe the Bible. We believe in Jesus. We absolutely shun those who attempt to find nuance and twisted and tortured interpretation of scripture that they would use to master all other broader interpretations, to find some kind of big message that they want to flout. We absolutely scorn such things. And yet somehow, we commit to the mental gymnastics necessary that allows us to abandon ‘the least of these,’ to abandon the poor, to abandon the immigrants, to abandon those who are in prison. I listened to Bernie Sanders, as he said he wanted to welcome the immigrants and give them dignity. As he said he wanted to care for the sick children, and mothers, and fathers, who do not have health care. As he said he wanted to decrease the amount of human beings who are corralled like cattle in the prisons. As he said he wanted to do justice for those who have nothing and live homeless. And I remembered the words of Jesus, who warned his disciples that there will be judgment, and on that day he will look to his friends, and he will say ‘Blessed are you, for you cared for me, for I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick, and you cared for me; I was hungry, and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was in prison, and you came to visit me; I was homeless, and you gave me shelter.” And the disciples said, “Jesus, when did we do any of those things for you?” And he said, “If you have done it for ‘the least of these,’ you have done it for me.”

And those words echoed in my heart. As I listened to that crazy, hoarse-voiced, wild-haired Jew, standing in front of the religious leaders of the Evangelical movement, calling us to account, as a Jew once did before. Telling us that he intends to care for ‘the least of these.’ To clothe the naked, to shelter the homeless, to care for the sick, to set the prisoners free.

Yes. I am an Evangelical Christian. I believe in the Bible. I follow Jesus. When I look at Bernie Sanders, and I hear the things that he’s saying, it’s like he’s ripping them out of the pages of scripture. I would have to try to avoid the meaning of those words. I would have to bury my head in the sand to continue to support conservative policies. I am religiously conservative but I am not politically so. And I think here is the heart and soul of it:

When we chose to follow Jesus, we decided that the Kingdom of God, and the men and women and children of this world, were more important than us. And that accidentally made us all liberals. The day we decided to follow Christ, and the day we decided that we value other human beings more than ourselves, we accidentally became liberals.

And so there is no contradiction between being a Bible-believing Christian and a Bernie Sanders supporter.

I follow the teachings of Christ: to care for ‘the least of these.’ And I believe that just as John the Baptist once cried out in the desert for justice, and called the religious establishment to account, and hearkened unto the day that Jesus would walk among us, and declare equity and justice and good news for the poor; and just as that day came, that Jesus stood in front of the multitudes at the religious institution and said “I have come to bring gospel to the poor,” I believe that Bernie Sanders now stands in front of us, wild-haired and hoarse-voiced, and he now declares justice for the poor. He declares good news for ‘the least of these.’ He has come to bring gospel. And I wouldn’t be much of a Christian if I didn’t stand on the side of gospel for the poor. Because the last time I checked, that’s where my master Jesus stood, and I’ll stand with him. And for now, that means I stand with Bernie Sanders.

If you want to see the reaction on Reddit, go here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SandersForPresident/comments/3l4khz/transcript_of_biblical_argument_for_bernie_by_jim/

[cantbeserious]

1. No Citizen Need Settle For The Lesser Of Two Corporate Evils - Go Bernie Go

eom

[Cheese Sandwich]

2. It's about time some left-progressives started talking to those Christian people

They're human beings.

We can cede whole states and that's what has been happening.

It's not good for us, it's not good for them.

Bernie did it right.

[MisterP]

12. the fundies actually rely on an impenetrable wall--keep ideas from coming

from the left, more religious or more secular, or people to understand that the Christians aren't one monolith that can pretend to be besieged by common decency

[Cheese Sandwich]

13. Yes right. If we really believe in our ideas then we have to believe that every human being can

potentially be reached.

We can't just abandon a whole section of the population like that.

It's good to go there and present a message.

[MisterP]

15. evidently there's a strong surge in liberal religiosity as the granny-bilking, rentboy-renting,

care-only-about-exactly-two-lines-in-the-Old-Testament, everyone-hating, crybaby, Nurse-Ratched Religious Right is simply turning people off regardless of faith

I think the same's happening with the New Atheists--we get it, the wrinkles in our brain just happen to line up with everything Malkin says; their objective, universal, eternal ethics now just really look like they were written in 2004 when the Euston Manifesto types were trying to mask their faint suspicions that Iraq might not work out as well as everyone promised--they got a stank about them; atheists don't want to be used as a vehicle for Coulterite messages

[Cheese Sandwich]

18. It seems like so many of the atheists are getting recruited into the "libertarian" thing

[MisterP]

20. there's always been an overlap with the Objectivist type

pure objectivity, plus an ironclad epistemology to raise one above the bawling, cliff-diving sheeple

but "movement atheism" has always had Old Left and full-blown hippies, so it's never been monolithic (or consistent in atheology); with the warmongering and the TERFs running around, the days of what they call the "illiberal left" are numbered

it's like when Lorentz and Ardrey said we had to go into Cuba and Nam right flipping NOW because of baboon trooping behavior

[Cheese Sandwich]

21. I think you might be right but I can't tell because too many vocabulary

You're probably right though.

[hifiguy]

3. i'd bet far more kids than you might think

are going to have Bernie's speech rattling around in their heads for a while.

He will convince some and make many more think.

That he did it without compromising one thing is just remarkable.

[Catherina]

4. I'm amazed. Seriously. Walked right into the lion's den

The positive reaction to his Liberty speech, the benefits rolling in have stunned me.

[HooptieWagon]

6. Agreed. I am stunned at the reaction.

Far better than I expected. Just goes to show Bernie is a true visionary, and I'm not.

[Cheese Sandwich]

19. I think maybe he planted some seeds

[winter is coming]

22. +1. Whether or not he gets their vote, he may have succeeded in getting

some of them to look at social and economic justice in a new light.

[artislife]

23. And that is no small feat.

If everyone would be a little gentler with the less powerful of this society, the better off we would be.

[guillaumeb]

5. Recommended. An excellent post.

The reddit comments were also great.

Living the Gospel and the message of Jesus is the key,, not just preaching the Gospel.

[CTyankee]

7. It was a great post, wasn't it? He got right into the heart of it, IMO...

[dgauss]

8. Republicans have been successfully playing the divide and conquer game for a long time.

And Democrats have been mostly conceding to the tactic and trying to find a way around it. I don't think Obama conceded to that and give him credit for, at the very least, providing a great example of someone who is genuinely above that. His speeches were unifying and maybe that had some slow effect (like a big ship turning..) on the national consciousness. Maybe that helped cultivate a mindset where a progressive truth teller like Bernie Sanders could speak at a conservative, evangelical university and be tolerated and even embraced by some.

In any case the time seems to be right for Bernie Sanders. I think he would be doing exactly the same things whether the time is right or not but just maybe it is.

[roscoeroscoe]

9. Bingo!

Thanks for passing this along. I'm getting some hope, y'all!

[KoKo]

10. K&R!

[roguevalley]

11. as the man said, Bernie proclaimed the good news

that is how you can balance spirit with everything else.

[Uncle Joe]

14. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Catherina.

[RobertEarl]

16. Well, of course

Bernie is good news for the poor. That's what we, and Bernie, have been saying all along.

Good to see other Christians getting the message. And some even relating it Biblically!!

[Luminous Animal]

17. That is some remarkable deep reflection there. As an atheist, I've done similar.

Looking past our differences to reach a common goal. I've worked with activist Catholic nuns and evangelical's to secure specific goals. Sometimes, the incidental dialog was painful but we were all intelligent enough to keep our eyes on the prize.

[delrem]

24. I learned about logic from a succession of Catholic priests who lived in a monastery.

I didn't *live* there. I contacted them, because they knew about logic and I was gifted but bewildered - and totally atheist.
They taught me. A message here, a message there. Those were great years. But the politics!! Wow. Shallow. In some essential way - disconnected.

I learned about the actual Catholic religion from reading people like Thomas Merton. Merton's work is all about looking into "prayer". None of Merton's readings have any connection with "logic" or "science".

[Ino]

25. "We've invited Hillary Clinton..."

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bernie-sanders-speaks-liberty-university

Junior Chris Hill, who sat in the front row, said his friends on campus were very curious to hear Sanders speak. “We’ve wanted a liberal to come here. We’ve invited Hillary Clinton, we’ve invited Barack Obama, we’ve invited Martin O’Malley. Bernie is the only one to be here,” he said.

[jberryhill]

26. Does he have a name beyond "Jim"?

[Catherina]

27. I don't think he's put it out yet. He's still reeling at its impact

Thank you for listening to my recording, I'm reeling at the impact it had. When I stop crying from all these stories, I'll record another.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SandersForPresident/comments/3l6hfh/the_spirituality_of_liberty_and_justice_and_its/

I had no idea this thread existed! I'm so humbled that so many of you listened to my recording. I've gotten so much feedback and I had no clue anybody even listened to it. People have been asking me to do a version that addresses Bernie's platform more fully... after seeing all the love and support on this thread and the transcript thread, I'M GOING TO DO IT!

https://www.reddit.com/r/SandersForPresident/comments/3l1t6z/a_liberty_university_alumnus_explains_how_an/cv39ijo

[–]ah18255 11 points 2 days ago

Question for you, OP: What particular part of his message made you feel convinced?

[–]SinCityShrink[S] 19 points 2 days ago

When he quoted Amos and then listed problems in America with the refrain "This is not Justice"

[–]ah18255 9 points 2 days ago

Nice My master's degree is in ethics and international affairs and it's the justice and morality aspect of Bernie's message that really resonates with me as well!

https://www.reddit.com/r/SandersForPresident/comments/3kx57b/im_an_alumni_of_liberty_u_bernie_is_the_voice_of/

People are trying to get him to put it on video. If he does that, he'll become public.

[jberryhill]

28. That will be interesting. He doesn't sound much like an Evangelical

This part, in particular, stands out as "off key" for an Evangelical Protestant:

When we chose to follow Jesus, we decided that the Kingdom of God, and the men and women and children of this world, were more important than us.

That's much more of a statement one would expect to hear from a mainline sort of "God is love and Jesus is a nice guy" type of Protestant than from anyone who would characterize themselves as an Evangelical or anywhere along the conservative Christian range. For Evangelicals, the act of becoming a Christian is entirely about one's self, and obtaining salvation by faith itself given by the grace of God. They will tack on that, oh, down the road a piece, the Holy Spirit will subsequently dwell within them and motivate them to do a nice thing now and again. But that sentence really stands out as a clunker in relation to what Evangelicals primarily believe. It is hardly "I decided, because I'm such a wonderful person to have made that decision, to be good to other people." From an Evangelical perspective, that's a bullshit statement of faith.

Likewise, in his discussion of the "gospel", it's a miss. The "good news", in particular, has a very specific meaning among the types of Christians one finds at an institution like Liberty, and it is not "Hey, poor people, we're here to get you fed, clothed, housed and healed."

I know these people really well, and to the well-tuned ear, it is a little off. I could be wrong, but the response to what he wrote from the perspective of most well-schooled Evangelicals is pretty easy to write. It sounds more like a mainline Protestant trying to sound like an Evangelical, but not quite tagging the bases that resonate with them.

[DirkGently]

29. They do worship a liberal Jewish man

Amazing that isn't brought up more, when they all act like Jesus was a sex-obsessed Protestant.

[bananas]

30. k&r nt

[bananas]

31. Thank you RobertEarl for pointing to this thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=600620