Jesus Was a Liberal
A Blogger's Bold Opinions on Politics and Religion
There is a seachange in American political thinking regarding the elusive thing called “values.” Sheridan believes those who claim to respect and follow Christian teachings would do well to re-prioritize. He advocates for increased funding to alleviate poverty an equitable healthcare system reinforced Social Security reduced federal debt equal protection under the law to homosexuals the elimination of state-sanctioned torture and a serious restructuring of a “Corrections” function which is inhumanly punitive to non-violent offenders and makes more crime than it corrects.
The money to cover these priorities would come from a rollback of the tax cuts granted to the wealthiest top two percent since 2000 plus the tax benefits enjoyed by energy pharmaceutical and the insurance industries. Invective is furiously pitched as fastballs curves sliders and change-ups. The man has no fear. He’s pretty sure that Jesus too would speak truth to power.
The author sees God as a hands-off spirit who relies on human generosity suggests that it is not possible to be true to Christianity without generosity.
He does not intervene into the lives of those of us on the Earth… He is Love the only definition of God in the New Testament.
Sheridan has run out of patience with an electorate who vote against their own economic interests. Prosecutor Ken Starr and the infamous hanging chads from the 2000 elections sealed the deal. His feelings for the intolerant are not a bit sugarcoated. The Catholic hierarchy takes hits as Paulist misinterpreters cowardly lawmakers catch it blowhard talking head pundits all catch their share of clear-cut disapproval. Certainly Fundamentalist Christians are a target:
“They are the under-educated the illiterate or the emotionally crippled…“s
Jesus Was A Liberal is divided into a series of blog entries averaging three or four pages each. The first entry provides an excellent definition of liberalism and matches that philosophy’s constituent components up with the actions of Jesus. However there is no arc of linear development. Organizational cohesion could be better with the subject of one entry unrelated to the next. Too many entries have little to do with issues of Christianity and instead revolve around perceptions of corruption callousness incompetence and crime in the Bush Administration. There is a smattering of misspelled names of generally recognizable public figures.
Besides keeping a weblog (accessible through Salon.com) the author attended Wesley Seminary and worked in television broadcasting. Sheridan trained in a social psychology program under the psychiatrist responsible for the care of Senator Joseph McCarthy. He served as an elections official in the often-fishy Ohio.
Leftie-partisan readers will surely agree with Sheridan’s concern for our more vulnerable citizens. Confirmed Republicans could be put off by some inventive name-calling. Open-minded Independents may be swayed by the sheer preponderance of one hundred twenty-six separate appeals for sanity compassion and progressive reform.
Reviewed by
Todd Mercer
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
