Always interesting to see cognitive dissonance at work, in this case
in how both sides of the political divide interpret Jesus in line with
their own biases. Of course like all scriptures the Bible is remarkably
accomodating on that front, since between the
slaughter-your-son-just-to-honour-me savagery of the old testament and
the turn-the-other-cheek humility of the new, something for every stripe
of philosophy.
"A study led by Lee Ross of Stanford University in California has found
that the Jesus of liberal Christians is very different from the one
envisaged by conservatives.
The researchers discovered that conservatives believe Jesus would have
prioritised the moral issues close to their own hearts, and that
disparities in wealth or the treatment of illegal immigrants wouldn't
have been high on his agenda. Liberals believed the opposite."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/mar/04/jesus-liberals-conservatives
However,
overall the conclusion is quite depressing, given the role religion
plays in US politics, then one might at least have hoped it might have
provided some common ground for debates, but as this shows, belief is
personal, and personally biased.
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