Whatever view you happen to take of Jesus - Lord and Saviour; failed apocalyptic prophet who thought the eschaton was imminent; cynic wisdom sage; Jewish preacher of an Israelite restoration; social revolutionary or whatever - the one thing we all know about him, as described to us in the Synoptics, is that he positioned himself as an advocate of those on the margins of society, who normally had no voice in the face of the ruling elites (the Judean priestly class, the Roman imperial authorities):
the oppressed, the poor, the scapegoats, victims, women, children, disabled people, prostitutes, Samaritans (members of an ethnic group hated by his fellow Judean nd Galilean Jews).
Some of his most famous catchphrases have to do with this theme: "
Whoever is the least among you is the greatest." (
Luke 9:48); "
the meek shall inherit the earth", the "humble will be exalted and the mighty will be humbled" etc.
As he said according to the New Testament:
Luke 22
25So Jesus declared, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in authority over them call themselves benefactors. 26But you shall not be like them. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who leads like the one who serves. 27For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is not the one who reclines? But I am among you as the One who serves.
Matthew 20
25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Luke 14:12-24
[12] Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. [13] But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, [14] and you will be blessed".
Matthew 21
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you."
While it would be wrong to stereotype the heterogeneous groups that comprise the "religious right", I'll say this much: so often they make Christianity into the tool of the very kinds of individuals Jesus condemned and to the detriment of the kind of vulnerable people he defended prior to his untimely death on a Roman execution stake.
From where I'm standing, I feel like they often defend people (and the unjust societal structures they operate within) like the priest from the Parable of the Good Samaritan, that would walk past the poor Samaritan man who had been left for dead by thugs because the priest didn't see him, since he belonged to a different race/religion nation, as his "neighbour".
I'm sure there are many great people in the "religious right" doing good things but there is an undeniable cancer at the heart of the movement and it takes the form of some seriously twisted theological understanding imho.