They love Him, they love Him NOT...

I wanted to find a blog that sparked my interest, had a clear position in its topic and came from an educated source. Amazingly I found exactly that, in my bio I stated I was a Christian, which is a fairly new statement I've begun to make. I call myself a Christian because I believe in God's word, and I want to follow His ways. I'm not perfect, the world is extremely tempting and its a difficult walk, I have and will step off the path but will always try to stay on and get back on. That being said, "Why Evangelicals Hate Jesus" is the blog that caught my eye.  

Evangelicals share the gospel, are followers of the bible and don't "hate Jesus." But the author makes points that are hard to argue. Phil Zuckerman co authored this article, he is an associate professor of sociology at Pitzer College in California, his blog is found in The Hufftington Post's religion section. 

In the article his reasons that Evangelicals hate Jesus are because their political positions contradict the teachings of Jesus and the bible, he comes to this conclusions based on a poll published by the Pew Forum on Religion and Life, Mr. Zuckerman says Jesus teaches on forgiveness and mercy (true) yet Evangelicals are most supportive of death penalty, government torture and draconian sentencing. He says Jesus teaches on peacefulness (true) and Evangelicals support easy access to weapons and no regulation of hand guns. He also says Jesus was very clear of the pursuit of wealth was inimical to the Kingdom of God, and that Evangelicals oppose food stamps and support corporate greed. Zuckerman's theory to how Evangelicals who love Jesus, hate Him, is that they love Him is because He gets them into heaven. They are only thanking Him and ignoring His teachings and commandments by picking and choosing what suits their secular needs.

So as I read this I was in a sense confused by his logic and by the teachings I've received in church. Do my beliefs contradict his logic? I don't think so, yet I don't think Evangelicals "hate" Jesus or completely love Him. If you love Jesus you follow His ways, because you love Him not so He can love you. In Christ or out of Christ we are humans and will never be perfect. Evangelicals are human too but if they believe in all these political policies that do contradict the doctrine of Jesus, then they should stop calling themselves Evangelicals. The goal of spreading the gospel is to draw people to Jesus so they can follow Him and His ways. But when their political views are opposite of the word of God, they are doing the exact opposite.  

Zuckerman ends by stating this "Of course, conservative Americans have every right to support corporate greed, militarism, gun possession, and the death penalty, and to oppose welfare, food stamps, health care for those in need, etc. -- it is just strange and contradictory when they claim these positions as somehow "Christian." They aren't." 

Agreed. Don't label these positions Christians or yourself an Evangelical when they and you are far from.