Jesus Was Not a Good Model of Democratic Values

In response to the cruel excesses of the fascist Christian Nationalist government of Donald Trump, people will often claim that the teachings of Jesus can be the source of a coherent response. These arguments are meant well, but they often overlook the full teachings of Jesus as are present throughout the New Testament, beyond the Sermon On The Mount.

The Book of Revelation details the plans of Jesus to enact violent revenge on the world, returning to the earth after his death. It’s full of righteous Christian celebrations of torture and genocide, culminating in the ultimate message of the Christian Bible: That the powerful get to do whatever you want, and have the right to punish you with vicious cruelty if you don’t get in line and obey them.

It’s sad, because some of the people who created the character of Jesus in some earlier parts of the New Testament clearly longed for peace and understanding. Before long, however, the writers of the Christian Bible made new scenes for Jesus in which he became a divine autocrat, a tyrant who cared about nothing more than power. In Revelation chapter 14, for example, Jesus punishes people who refuse to recognize him as a god king by stuffing them into a gigantic winepress and slowly crushing them until their blood flows out like wine.

In the end, Jesus was a jerk, a tyrannical Christian Nationalist, just like Donald Trump.