All of Jesus' teachings are found in the four Gospels of the Bible which can easily be read in one day. The word Christian means to be Christ like or a follower of Christ, a synonym for Jesus.
Mike Pense is now the most important political leader of white evangelical Christians in the US and perhaps some beyond America.
Exactly which beliefs that Jesus taught is Mike Pense pushing as a Christian leader? I'm not going to answer that question, but I will ask another. What is Mike Pense pushing that I believe is diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus.
1. A Theocracy: It was not the Jewish people in general that turned on Jesus. It was the organized religious leaders who were in collaboration with the Roman authorities. At several points in time, Jesus' harshest condemnations were against leaders in the organized religion of his day, not against the sins that the common people had committed and had at least some guilt as a result.
2. Jesus debated for a faith based on a relationship with God, not a set of arbitrary rules that other people in power could punish people who broke them. There is no record of Jesus proposing that the government set up laws to enforce that people follow what "the government" believed to be God's law.
3. Jesus was about love and forgiveness. That was his message through and through the four gospels.
I find the term Christian and the concept of Mike Pense being the leader of people pushing for the ideals that Jesus taught in Israel and Palestine almost 2000 years ago to be incompatible.
I am a follower of Jesus. By that I certainly don't mean I live up to all of Jesus' teachings. But I do make an attempt. I try not to "add stuff" to what Jesus taught and then put Jesus' name on it and try to make others do what I often fail to do myself.
Don't worry. I have plenty of "stuff" that I add to what Jesus taught. However, I try to not claim that it came from Jesus.
I firmly believe that should a member of Mike Pense' family have a miscarriage, they should be allowed to take what human remains that can be found from the mass of blood be collected by a funeral home, a funeral be held, and the remains be buried in a cemetery.
I bristle at the idea that any of the rest of us be allowed to interfere with his family grief. If Mike Pense' family has the money to pay for all that and it provides comfort, I would oppose any law that would forbid his family to do that.
My understanding of Jesus' teachings allow me to have that belief. At the same time, my understanding of Jesus is that it would also be wrong for Mike Pense to then declare that everyone follow what was healing to his family or followed what his family believed to be the proper religious response to the tragedy of a miscarriage. It is ethically wrong for anyone to "force" others to act out their grief in the way that best fits themselves when in grief.
At the root of American freedom of religion is the belief that the government has absolutely no right to interfere with what any citizen believes or that citizen's right to declare that belief and not need to worry that he will be arrested for his beliefs.
The ancient Aztecs believed that their God required a human be sacrificed so that the heart could be offered as a gift to the Aztec God. This heart had to come from a human in good health whose life was taken as a sacrifice. The Aztec God would not accept the heart of a person who had died of natural causes.
People have the freedom of religion to believe in the ancient Aztec religion without fear of being killed or imprisoned. People don't have the right to practice this religion as someone would have to be killed and we in the US don't allow for murders to practice a religion.
It is absolutely none of Mike Pense's business what a woman does with her body. It is wrong for Mike Pense to try to make the American government to be a cathedral to enforce what Mike Pense believes are the teachings of Jesus.
Mike Pense might be right about what Jesus said to do and what Jesus said not to do. Freddie may be a complete fool when it comes to understanding what Jesus preached on how to live and how not to live.
Both Mike Pense and Freddie have that right under the US Constitution to believe what we believe about what Jesus said to do and not to do. What we don't have the right to do is force the other one to follow what we believe or Jesus' or anyone else's teachings.
Mike Pense is not Freddie's Christian leader now and...you can right it down in your little red, yellow, blue or black book. Mike Pense will never be the leader of what is referred to as the main line Protestant Christians in the US.
My church doesn't consider abortion to be or not be a sin. My church teaches that it is a personal choice as to what each person should believe to do in each situation concerning an abortion. The pregnant woman, the sperm donor, family, doctor, and spiritual advisor should deal with a possible abortion without the government's interference. If abortion were such a big deal to Jesus and God, then why isn't the subject covered in the Bible, somewhere, anywhere?
Jehovah's Witness believe that if a person receives a blood transfusion that that person will go to a literal hell and feel the effects of a hot fire for all eternity. I believe this is total hogwash. However, I would never approve of forcing a member of that movement to have a blood transfusion. The person would have a horrible rest of his life believing the horrible hell awating him.
Jehovah's Witness doesn't have and should never have the legal authority to deny blood transfusions to anyone.
I'm not going to judge Mike Pense's heart and his relationship to God. I will however judge harshly his attempt to make the rest of us follow his religious beliefs. That is unconstitutional from a legal standpoint of the rights of American citizens under the US Constitution and its amendments.
It is also a violation of how I view Jesus' commandments on what to believe and how to live. That is secondary to what has been historically the American viewpoint on God and religion since the ratification of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution.
This is a sad, no it is a tragic day to have someone like Mike Pense be the leader of major Christian/political movement in the US. I see nothing but bad coming as a result of this election.
To understand that some 70 plus percent of evangelical Christians voted for a person who has no Christian understandings, has recordings of what he wants to do to women, and has lead such a shadowy business leadership.
And if the drink wasn't already poisoned enough, I now read where this wing of Christian believers now believe that somehow Trump is God's man for our times. Please! I just had lunch! I don't want or need to barf it away. Reading just drivel about Trump being God's man for our times is enough to barf, not once but for hours, days, weeks, perhaps months on end!
