A while back, I was watching a Republican debate in Des Moines, when one of the commentators asked the candidates who their favorite philosophers were. As many of you remember, several of the candidates responded that Jesus Christ was their favorite philosopher.

There was something about the likes of Gary Bauer and George W. Bush making these claims that didn’t sit right with me. I think I’ve put my finger on it.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that Jesus Christ was a bleeding- heart liberal if there ever was one. Yet he is always invoked by those on the extreme political right in order to justify their moral authority.

I’m not about to say that Jesus would lineup as a Democrat, but I certainly feel that several platforms of the Republican party seem to run contrary to his teachings.

In particular, I recall the passage in which Christ describes the last judgment. According to the Bible, God takes those who are to be saved and explains to them that when he was hungry, they fed him, when he was naked, they clothed him, etc. The chosen asked God when they did these things, and he replied: “As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me” (Matthew 25:40).

If these conservatives are truly followers of Christ, why is it that they don’t support more social welfare programs? I don’t think I’m reading too much into this to assert that it’s the kind of thing Christ was talking about here. There is clearly a call to help the sick, the impoverished, even the imprisoned, and yet Steve Forbes feels that the inheritance tax is a bigger problem than the 14 million children without health insurance.

Christ makes some pretty radical suggestions, and the conservative candidates seem to be forgetting about many of them. For instance: “If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven” (Matthew 19:21).

If these conservatives are following the teachings of Christ, I’d like to know exactly which ones. The typical answer, of course, is that they oppose abortion.

It has become a forgone conclusion in this country that there is a passage in the Bible that says: “Thou shalt not have the right to abort thine fetus.” It doesn’t. It does say “Thou shall not kill,” but people seem rather selective in terms of what they apply that to.

The Republican party platform opposes abortion but supports the death penalty. If the decree is simply “Thou shall not kill,” this doesn’t seem like a logical position. Going even further, Democrats, Republicans, most everyone believe it is all right to kill in times of war, which also seems to violate the Bible’s order.

No one completely lives up to every teaching of the Bible, nor are we supposed to. “Who then can be saved? And looking upon them, Jesus said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible'” (Matthew 19:25-26). But for too long, right-wing, conservative thought has been solely associated with the teachings of Christ.

For God’s sake (no pun intended), Christ wasn’t even a capitalist. As a matter of fact, his teachings reek of socialism if you ask me. Come to think of it, why wasn’t the Bible banned during the Red Scare?

Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” suggests that when people are down on the bottom, they need to come together and share the limited resources they have. In the Bible, Christ goes so far as to say that giving up all of your possessions is the way to follow God. Yet Steinbeck is labeled as commie fodder, and the Bible remains the handbook of the elect.

The reason is that long ago people stopped actually paying attention to what was in the Bible and merely use its name to invoke fear, respect or whatever else they may be looking for.

Groups like the Christian Coalition pop up and purport to be acting in a manner in line with the teachings of Christ. These narrow minded hate groups have given the big J.C. a bad name, and I’m sick of it.

I may not be down with many “Christian” groups, but I am certainly down with the teachings of Christ himself. He challenged those who would follow him to give up almost everything of themselves to help out their fellow man.

It’s the challenges of Christ’s teachings that most conservatives seem to have conveniently left out. They’re content dropping his name here and there in order to get in a little better with the Bible-belt demographic.

The next time one of these conservatives claims to be influenced by Christ, I’d like to hear him try to justify how his views are directly supporting Jesus’ teachings.

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Ben Godar is a senior in sociology from Ames. He is assistant arts and entertainment editor of the Daily.