While many conservatives respond to Bernie Sanders’ speech at Liberty University with frustration, dismissing him as a left-wing socialist, one Liberty graduate was not so quick to dismiss Sanders. In fact, he argues that Sanders is the candidate campaigning on the principles of Christ.
“When I heard Bernie speaking in that way, when I saw that guy on stage at Liberty University, I saw John the Baptist. . . .crying out to the religious leaders, the Pharisees of his day,” said the graduate, calling himself Jim, “calling them corrupt and complicit with those who have all the power and all the money and all the wealth, and abandoning the people that God loves, that God cares about…”
Jim went on:
And lightning hit my heart at that moment. And I realized that we are evangelical Christians. We believe the Bible. We believe in Jesus. We absoutely shun those who would attempt to find nuance and twisted and tortured interpretations of scripture that they would use to master all other broader interpretations, to find some kind of big message that they want to flout. We absolutely scorn such things, and yet somehow we commit to the mental gymnastics necessary that allows us to abandon the least of these, to abandon the poor, to abandon the immigrants, to abandon those who are in prison.
I listened to Bernie Sanders as he said he wanted to welcome the immigrants and give them dignity, as he said he wanted to care for the sick children and mothers and fathers who do not have health care, as he said he wanted to decrease the amount of human beings who are corralled like cattle in the prisons, as he said he wanted to do justice for those who have nothing and live homeless. And I remembered the words of Jesus who warned his disciples that there will be judgment, and on that day he will look to his friends, and he will say, “Blessed are you for you cared for me, for I was naked and you cothed me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was in prison and you came to visit me, I was homeless and you gave me shelter.” And his disciples said, “When did we do any of those things for you?” And He said, “If you have done it for the least of these, you have done it for me.”
Jim concluded, “I wouldn’t be much of a Christian if I didn’t stand on the side of gospel for the poor, because, the last time I checked, that’s where my master Jesus stood, and I’ll stand with Him. And, for now, that means I stand with Bernie Sanders.”
Listen to Jim’s full remarks below.
