Christ for President

The Washington Post's On Faith asked its panelists this week:

"If the historical Jesus were running for president, what kind of candidate would he be? Republican or Democrat? For or against the death penalty, the Iraq war, abortion, etc.?"

All of them, from Welton Gaddy (director of the Interfaith Alliance) to Deepak Chopra to Chuck Colson to Susan Thistlethwaite Brooks (feminist theologian) to Gardner C. Taylor to Thomas Bohlin (U.S. vicar of Opus Dei), said that wasn't a very good question. Most of the respondents couldn't imagine Jesus winning the nomination for either party. There are some predictable responses (paraphrasing Chuck Colson: "of course he would be against abortion"), and some provocative ones (Gardner C. Taylor: "I think He would also be assassinated, lynched, or if you prefer, crucified as before." Deepak Chopra's take is actually pretty funny.

So, if these "experts" all agree that Jesus would never be a candidate, and would have a platform very different from either party... am I wrong in thinking that there is a strong perception "out there" that Christian=conservative=Republican? I think that's why my friend's bumper sticker that says "Christian AND a Democrat" means something... but, the religious right worked hard to create this perception, and a lot of people (religious progressives, and, I think, others) have been working hard to demonstrate a more complicated relationship between religion and politics in the U.S. So, maybe that's having some effect.

The title of this post is the title of a Woody Guthrie song that Billy Brag & Wilco put to music on one of their Mermaid Avenue CDs. He had a pretty clear idea of what he thought Jesus' platform would be:

Let's have Christ for President.
Let us have him for our King.
Cast your vote for the Carpenter
that you call the Nazarene.

The only way we can ever beat
these crooked politician men
Is to run the money changers out of the temple
And put the Carpenter in

O It's Jesus Christ for president
God above our king
With a job and a pension for young and old
We will make hallelujah ring

Every year we waste enough
to feed the ones who starve
We build our civilization up
and we shoot it down with wars

But with the Carpenter on the seat
away up in the capital town
The USA would be on the way prosperity bound!