Time for a Christian Litmus Test: Following Jesus Means Standing with the Poor

Time for a Christian Litmus Test: Following Jesus Means Standing with the Poor
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There are two things that I believe with unwavering certainty: 1) that God is not neutral, but stands on the side of the poor; 2) that the Jesus movement is a resistance movement. After the tax bill passed the Senate, the time is now for Christians to show just where their allegiance stands.

And for those that so desire to be middle-of-the-road bystanders or sit this one out on the sidelines, you cannot stand with empire and Jesus.

Growing up in a Southern evangelical home, I was taught that there were certain markers or rites of passage that I was to follow if I wanted to be a Christian (or, rather, identified as one). First, I had to have a conversion experience. This meant confessing and repenting that I was a sinner. Only then could I “accept Jesus into my heart.” Next, I had to be baptized. After these steps, I had to do my best not to sin, which is to say, live a sanctified life. The second I sinned, I had to ask for God’s forgiveness or live fearfully outside of God’s protection.

This was the rhythm of my childhood.

At no point, however, was I taught to care about the things Jesus cared about. I was taught that poverty was a spiritual issue, that salvation meant the poor could inherit the spiritual blessedness of Abraham. There was no concern for the poor now, because “Jesus said: the poor will always be with us!”

At seminary, I met a different Jesus. This Jesus announced the advent of his resistance movement with this proclamation:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. S/he has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

- (Luke 4:18-19, CEB)

This Jesus not only was concerned with the poor, but spent most of his time identifying with the most vulnerable and marginalized in society.

This Jesus spoke of the in-breaking of God’s kingdom, which stands in opposition to the empire of Rome.

This Jesus touched those deemed untouchable, gave value to those called worthless, and sought to enact a new economy in which the poor are blessed.

But this Jesus, because of his concern with the poor and opposition to the policies of Roman rule, was executed by the State as a threat to the imperial agenda.

The Christian Litmus Test in the Trump Era

It is here that I would like to return to our current situation: the targeting of the poor and most vulnerable in our society by this administration. What I want to suggest is a new sort of Christian litmus test. Instead of looking at conversion or baptism or church attendance as the indicators of who is a Christian, we must faithfully look at what Jesus did and said, as recorded in the gospels. It is not a creed to follow or confession to make; rather, it is about doing the right thing (justice, righteousness). Because Jesus had much to say about the poor, and much to say about the religious powers that conspired with empire to oppress the poor, keeping them under religious and political oppression. Being Jewish, Jesus came in the long line of the Jewish prophetic tradition, denouncing the exploitive nature of empire and announcing the consequences of a failure to fulfill God’s mandates concerning the poor.

The coopting of Christianity by the GOP for their own well-being at other’s expense is anti-Christ, that is, against the very heart of what Jesus taught and did. All the while, many of the GOP constituency “confess” to be Christian. In this sense, Christianity is like another pledge of allegiance among others. Such allegiances are on display in many places, as is evidenced by people pledging allegiance to the American flag, the Christian flag, and for those of us that spent some time in Christian school, the Bible. At the same time, there is no dissonance in being a Christian and supporting an administration that seeks to harm the most vulnerable in our society. And that is a problem.

What I am suggesting, and what I am hoping, is that we are experiencing a death of certain forms of Christianity, one that will give way to a resurrected resistance movement. That this death is making way for a radical return and reimagining of the Jesus in the midst of this current empire’s reign. That this death to is be grieved, but it does not have the final say. When early followers of the Jesus movement proclaimed that “Jesus is Lord, it meant that Caesar wasn’t. That decision came with the punishment of death. But those followers (literally protestors), like Jesus, believed that death would not have the final say.

When people stand with the poor, when people protest against policies that seek to exploit and discriminate, when people call out the corrupt nature of the current administration and name the ways which Christianity has been complicit, that is resistance, which is to say, as one voice, “Jesus is Lord.”

Yes, “Jesus is Lord” was the first protest chant.

This tax overhaul is just one example of the many ways that the current administration wants to oppress and exploit the most vulnerable in our society. The question remains: Are Christians willing to stand with the poor, even when it costs them? Or will they condemn Jesus to the cross of oppressive policies on a hill called Capitol?

The spirit of the Lord is upon us to preach that good news. In doing so, there is a reclamation of the resistance movement that Jesus started.

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