Jesus was not a liberal

Maybe if liberals stuck to the theocratic tyrant portrayed in the old testament they'd have a shot at claiming some legitimacy.  But since Jesus is exclusively a new testament character there's no way they're claim passes muster.

Jesus helped the poor, the sick, even the dead or so the Bible says.  He broke bread with prostitutes and tax collectors.  He told us to be generous and humble and moral.  I see where liberals might think he aligns with them but they must be blinded by self righteousness to see they are grossly out of sync with the morality taught by Jesus.

There's a huge difference between "go and do likewise" and "go and use state coercion to make everyone follow my edicts".  Jesus' message is extremely personal.  He describes how to behave, how to treat one another, what ideals to shoot for.  He does not say, "Go! Give to the poor, and if you find anyone that does not give as much as you think he should, lock him up.  Demonize the greedy and gang up on them and threaten violence so they may know my love."

One of the topics I'm trying to address in my blog is the assumption that anarchy is not pragmatic, that reality dictates a state.  When I started attending youth group in the 10th grade I was given the same lecture from my dad about Christianity: impractical, unrealistic.  Christian liberals, because of their ignorance about libertarianism, seem to wholeheartedly agree and condone state violence.  However, my dad was honest with himself and left the church thinking he couldn't live up to the ideals that were being preached.  Liberals have just applied a twisted theology so they can continue using praising the state and God (in that order?).  Liberty is the only political philosophy consistent with Christianity.

Don't think I'm giving Republicans a free pass here.  If we mix old testament wars with new testament evangelism then we get all the religious atrocities (e.g. crusades) along with modern neo-concervatism (e.g. American exceptionalism) and modern liberalism (e.g. the welfare state).  The right, not being quite as economically illiterate as the left, don't harp on financial issues as much as they do social issues or the seven deadly sins.  When Jesus tells the prostitute to "not sin again", republicans say "because if you do, we'll throw you in jail consequently making your 'profession' extremely dangerous and violent.  If you are beaten by a client or boss, don't look for justice because going to the cops will just lead to your arrest".

How much better would society be if we put aside the "crimes against God" conservatives worry about and the hoarding crimes of the left, and just focus on real criminals?  Violence and fraud should not be tolerated in a civilized society, but because we're so worried about non-violent drug offenders and tax evaders that the state has created more real crime and there are even fewer resources available to deal with it.