After hearing the Republican presidential wannabes lay claims as to which among them was the best Christian, Lucius Flatley and the coffee shop regulars were inspired to discuss similarities between today’s self-proclaimed Christian politicians and Christ himself.

Jesus was a lone wandering preacher with a small group of followers whose dress and demeanor proclaimed them eccentrics, if not actual oddballs – similar in many respects to Occupy Wall Street groups today. His prescriptions for fellow man amounted to medications for the soul. They ranged from dreamlike to everyday, common advice, but were basically about love.

And love, the group concluded, is in relatively short supply in American politics.

Differences between Jesus Christ and Christians began early. For generations, what he said and what he did was passed on through the imperfect trumpet of campfire stories, superstition and primitive understanding of odd or uncommon events. Consequently, the scribblers who finally put pen to papyrus often saw different colors on the same Jesus palette. (They did, however, agree that love was central to his teachings.)

No real attempt to collect, compare – and correct – various versions of Jesus’ teachings was made until the Roman Emperor Constantine realized that these groups of motivated believers could be made into a disciplined organization that could serve the state. So, three centuries later, Constantine commanded every bishop (preacher) of this new faith to a yearlong meeting at Nicea, a small town in Turkey, to compile an “official” version of Jesus and his teachings.

Their product was to become the moral and intellectual backbone of the western world. For 1,700 long years, Christians have used (and abused) the version of Jesus’ teachings that was adopted by this group.

Their version shows that Jesus:

Made no mention of hell or the devil – they are a later invention of church authorities.

When faced with a contemporary version of water boarding, he refused even to participate in his own defense,

Devoting himself totally to God and realizing that others might not have his strength, he advised them simply to separate Caesar from God.

He never criticized homosexuality. For him to deny a loving relationship between two people – where one cared for and sacrificed for the other – would have been totally out of character.

He condemned divorce? only in the context of failure to love, to care for, or abandonment.

He said to forgive adultery, a blessing for which several American presidents should be grateful.

He believed that men should love their enemies – a characteristic in extremely short supply in Washington today.

He said that he was the only path to God, a claim contradicted by “infallible” popes ever since, and challenged by Joseph Smith on his farm in upstate New York.

He did not condemn women to second-class status. On the contrary, he cherished them, depended on them and considered them fully equal to men.

He approved of alcohol, turning water into wine in order to keep a party going when the booze ran low.

But perhaps the widest distance between Jesus and present-day Christian politicians is his advice to give your wealth to the poor. One example of today’s differences serves: A leading Christian politician, Latter Day Saint Willard Romney who, by his own admission, has restricted his giving to his Mormon Tabernacle, has filed a building permit to renovate his beach house in La Jolla, Calif., (one of his three homes) with a several-million dollar renovation that has, among other things, an elevator for his cars to a 3,600-square-foot garage

With this thought in mind, the coffee group decided that it was not necessary to discuss the proposed Republican budget, which maintains the lowest taxes in a half century on the highest earners, while eliminating food stamps

Christian thoughts for the week

According to the New York State Commission of Correction, new jail cells have an annual operating cost of $60,000 each. Housing for a homeless individual costs $12,500 annually,

In 2010, $288 billion was created in new U.S. income; 93 percent of that went to the top 1 percent – or, one person took 93 cents out of each dollar while 99 people shared the remaining 7 cents.

Rodney Quinn, a former Maine secretary of state, lives in Westbrook. He can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.

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