The Politics of Jesus Reflection Paper

Dr. Obery Hendricks, a professor of Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary writes about his views of liberalism and conservatism and the roles they play in politics. Much of the chapter we read discussed these two topics, however, at times I found it difficult to see both sides of his argument because he focused so heavily on conservatism and how they are “hateful and insulting, it sometimes borders on murderous” (260). Being both a Christian and a conservative it was hard to force myself to read this paper but I did give him the benefit of the doubt and read on to read more of what Dr. Hendricks had to say about his book, The Politics of Jesus.
After reading further I continued to see conservatism being looked at in a bad light. However, now we were being introduced to two forms of conservatism: moral and political. While, it does not seem that Hendricks agrees with the principles surrounding political conservatism, as seen by him picking apart and scrutinizing the words of such conservative politicians like antiabortion activist Randall Terell, Ann Coulter and Rev Jerry Falwell. It does seem like Hendricks is clarifying that “Christians should cleave to the morals and ethics set down in the bible and the best of the Christian moral tradition as articulated by Jesus, particularly in his moral discourse in the Sermon on the Mount. This is moral conservatism. But it is not the same as political conservatism” (262). Though he does make this distinction it is still difficult for me to look past what he is saying of conservatism as a whole, “Not only are today’s conservatives uncivil in their rhetoric, but they seem to ignore some of Jesus’ most important pronouncements, such as ‘Love your enemies’ By this Jesus did not mean to give enemies free reign to wreak harm and havoc” (259). One last thing I would like to say about conservatism is that as a Christian reading his book I did not particularly like that he was making accusations as to who Jesus was or what he believed politically. When he said, “Yet despite Jesus’ moral conservatism, by no stretch of the imagination was he a political conservative…Jesus was not about conserving the status quo, he was about changing it” (263), I found it hard to imagine that Obery Hendricks could know these things about Jesus and what he believes.
When it came to talking about liberalism I fond Hendricks to be a little bit friendlier and it seemed as if he supported them more, which became evident by the long list of achievements on page 296. Hendricks also said straight out, “Liberalism embodies a commitment to the rights of all people –not just the privileged few” (293). This statement seems to imply that conservatism does not and I being a conservative find that completely untrue. Hendrick also likens the opinions and reactions of some conservatives to all conservatives and I think that is wrong because a lot of people make-up the conservative party and they believe and act differently then the people in the book. In his paper Hendrick wrote “As the economist Robert Kuttner puts it, “Liberals and conservatives agree, in principle, about the value of Liberty. But where liberals differ is their insistence that liberty requires greater equality then out society now generates’” (294). It is statements like this that make me remember how much I dislike this paper. The continuous bashing of the Republican Party and their stance in Christianity does little to convince me that Hendrick presents both sides and is not swayed in a certain direction. When an author is talking about touchy subjects, especially politics I like to hear both sides of the argument and prefer to not promote one to the other.
Ultimately, toward the end of Hendricks excerpt from The Politics of Jesus I recognized that he was neither trying to promote liberalism or bash conservatism but to prove a point that both exist and that perhaps the politics of Jesus were a combination of the two and he believed in more then just saying he was a conservative Christian or a liberal Christian. Hendricks writing were extremely hard to follow and I often felt like he was degrading conservatism, however, I do understand he was expressing his opinions and I appreciate what he had to say.