Sanders shows the meaning of Christianity

Opinion

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This article was published 10/02/2016 (2989 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

How wonderfully ironic, how delightfully paradoxical it is, that the only serious candidate for the U.S. presidency who is not a declared and ostentatious Christian is the contender with the most profoundly Christian policies. Bernie Sanders, Jewish but not particularly orthodox, speaks of equality, peace, justice, humility and fraternity, while Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Hillary Clinton and even — hard to believe — Donald Trump proclaim their Christian faith at almost every opportunity, but are mired in dishonesty and scandal or promulgate the most uncharitable and reactionary ideas.

Cruz insists on “giving all the glory to God,” but, even according to CNN, has told downright lies about his opponents and appears obsessed with armed conflict and gun ownership. Rubio has covered all of his bases by attending a Catholic as well as a Baptist church, but supports a militaristic foreign policy, and while frequently speaking of his humble origins, offers little hope for the poor and underprivileged.

Trump abuses opponents, wants to ban any immigrants he doesn’t approve of, degrades women and seems to put the market before the messiah. He wants walls and wars rather than faith and forgiveness, but has still received the support of some major evangelical leaders. God knows how!

As for Clinton, while it’s not for me to judge her faith, I find it difficult to fully accept her recent account of her deep and heartfelt spiritual beliefs; just as I’m bemused by the Brooklyn accent she adopts in New York and the southern drawl that suddenly develops when she speaks in Georgia or Louisiana.

Then there is Sanders. He stands out proudly as having voted against the war in Iraq, which led to mass suffering, societal anarchy and also the near disappearance of the ancient Iraqi Christian community — something the war-supporting Christian candidates generally refuse to discuss.

He believes the minimum wage is too low and that poor people can’t pay the rent and put food on the table when their take-home pay is so grotesquely inadequate. These, by the way, are genuine family values: enabling working-class families to stay together and function in an increasingly cruel economy.

Sanders argues while the very few become very rich, the very many are struggling more each day, and a heavily subsidized university education and a health system that cares for all people irrespective of income or resources is humane and vital.

He believes while the country has to be defended and the Islamic State group defeated, war is a last resort and the military is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.’ No, not a phrase from a democratic socialist running to be president, but one from a Conservative prime minister who led the struggle against Nazism: Winston Churchill.

Sanders wants to unite rather than divide, listen rather than shout, include rather than exclude, and adopt a preferential option for the poor, the marginalized and broken. I suppose we could dismiss all this as dangerous radicalism, but it sounds more like flesh-and-blood Christianity to me. This, as they say, is gospel talk.

Jesus was not political in that he drew a distinct line between duty to God and one’s duty to the state, but he also preached a revolution of love in which brotherhood and sisterhood were more important than national, class or ethnic differences. This is most certainly not the message conveyed by Cruz, Trump and Rubio, or for that matter, Mike Huckabee or Ben Carson.

With God, we are told, all things are possible and rich men can enter heaven just as camels can indeed pass through eyes of needles, but surely not when they won’t shut up about bombing cities, closing borders, expelling newcomers and blaming the poor for their poverty.

Mingling religion and politics is seldom a good idea, but perverting the meaning of one particular faith in the pursuit of power is an even worse one. I have no idea how the son of Polish Jewish immigrants would react to being labelled as the candidate of Christian values, but as a mere journalist struggling desperately to lead a Christian life, I can tell you I feel pretty good and pretty secure in describing him thus.

 

Michael Coren is an author and broadcaster.

mcoren@sympatico.ca