B.S.’s no BS speech at Liberty University should challenge all of us

Bernie Sanders is not a Christian. He is a Jew, though he does not profess to be deeply religious. However, the vision he recently expounded in a speech to the students and faculty of Liberty University, the school founded by the Baptist fundamentalist Jerry Falwell, sounded more Christian than many Christians.

The vision he offered was grounded in the golden rule: “In everything do to others as you would have them to do to you; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matt. 7:12). He quoted Amos: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (5:24).

He said that it would be a hard case to make that we are a just society, a society that lives by the golden rule. He spoke of the massive injustice in terms of income and wealth inequality. He said there is no justice “when so few have so much and so many have so little.”

He noted that our country has the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth. He said, “there is no justice when thousands of Americans die every single year because they do not have any health insurance and do not go to the doctor when they should.” He pointed out that we are “the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to people as a right.”

He said, “there is no justice when low income and working class mothers are forced to separate from their babies one or two weeks after birth and go back to work because they need the money that their jobs provide.” Again, he pointed out that we are the “only major country on earth that does not provide paid family and medical leave.”

He concluded by saying, “If we are honest in striving to be a moral and just society, it is imperative that we have the courage to stand with the poor, to stand with working people and when necessary, take on very powerful and wealthy people whose greed, in my view, is doing this country enormous harm.”

I have to commend those responsible for making this event happen, for certainly they took a risk. The first step out of Christian fundamentalism is exposure to more liberating ideas. And for those who are receptive the blinders might just come off.

At least for one evangelical Christian and graduate of Liberty University (bachelor’s and master’s degree), the blinders did come off. He posted a sermon that has went viral. In it he compared Bernie Sanders to John the Baptist confronting the hypocrisy and inauthenticity of the religious establishment of his day. This evangelical Christian graduate of Liberty University said,

I heard Bernie Sanders crying out to the religious leaders at Liberty University, in his hoarse voice, with his wild hair, this Jew, and he proclaimed justice over us. He called us to account for being complicit with those who are wealthy and those who are powerful and for abandoning the poor, ‘the least of these’ who Jesus said he had come to bring good news to. . . .

And lightning hit my heart in that moment. And I realized that we are evangelical Christians, that we believe the Bible. . . . And yet somehow, we commit to the mental gymnastics necessary [in interpreting scripture] that allows us to abandon ‘the least of these,’ to abandon the poor, to abandon the immigrants, to abandon those who are in prison.

This evangelical Christian who now posts under Sanders4President says that when he heard Bernie Sanders calling evangelical Christians into account, he heard Jesus saying in the Gospel of Matthew that when you care for the most vulnerable, when you care for the little ones, you care for Jesus. For Jesus said, “when you have done it for the ‘least of these’, you have done it for me.”

It’s interesting to contrast Sander’s speech with a speech given on the same day by GOP front-runner Donald Trump in Dallas. There is no BS in Bernie’s address; the Donald’s is full of it. Trump trumpeted himself. That’s all he talked about: his wealth, his hair, his T.V. show, his lead in the polls, how great he is, winning. He said, “We’re going to have so many victories that at some point they are just going to be coming out of your ears!” I like the way E. J. Dionne put it, “If it had been part of a film called ‘The Donald, the Movie,’ its soundtrack would have demanded Carly Simon’s old song, ‘You’re So Vain.’”

I have met Christians who support Donald Trump. The question above all questions that Christians should ask themselves is: Who will best represent the qualities, virtues, practices, and characteristics that reflect the golden rule? Who will work toward the goal of a just society? Who will advance policies that will help the poor and vulnerable? Clearly someone who aspires to tear down the wall between the rich and poor by extending rights and opportunity. Not one who wants to build a wall to keep all “the little ones” out.

Chuck Queen is a Baptist minister and the author of Being a Progressive Christian (is not) for Dummies (nor for know-it-alls): An Evolution of Faith. Chuck blogs at A Fresh Perspective, and is also a contributor to the blog Faith Forward and Baptist News Global.