What matters to Jesus

With all the talk in the last election about morals, values, and all things Jesus it's really got me thinking about what matters to Jesus. What REALLY matters to Jesus?

Here's what I think.

I think Jesus might have had an opinion on gay marriage. But I think that opinion ranks right up there with the concern I have for anti-billboard legislation... not real high. I think Jesus probably thinks porn to be a not-so-good thing. But I doubt it keeps him up at night.

Then, pray tell, really matters to JC.

Well, war - killing of any sort - but that's for another day.

What else then? Economic justice. That aint socialism Im talking about - it has nothing to do with redistributing wealth. It has EVERYTHING to do with making sure everyone has a little something - the bare neccesities of life - and in a county as rich as ours I believe the disparity of wealth makes Jesus weep.

This really isnt a political matter - though I do believe the current Republican leadership is doing great harm to our economy and the harm will most likely be felt by the middle and lower classes. But it's a matter of VALUES. What are our values?

Anyway, this cat from the Atlanta Journal-Constituion elaborates on it nicely... (you can follow the link or you can read it here... you might have to register for the site if you go with the link)

Economic morality counts. We hear a lot of talk about morality and values from our political leaders these days, as if we exalted these people to save our souls instead of just electing them to run our government. Their concept of morality seems oddly narrow, though, extending to issues of sexuality but not to other areas of human life.
To economics, for example.

Consider the case of Carly Fiorina. As head of Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina rammed through a controversial merger with Compaq that cost 18,000 people their jobs. In her five years as CEO, the company's stock dropped 30 percent. Yet when she was finally fired, she walked away with a severance package worth $21 million.

Is that kind of reward system moral, or is it evidence of some deeper
sickness permeating the culture of this country?

Is it moral to do what President Bush is doing in his latest budget, cutting spending on education, housing and food by claiming that we have no choice given the looming deficit, even as he proposes $1.3 trillion in tax cuts for Fiorina and others in her tax bracket, cuts that will increase the deficit?

Is it moral to continue handing out lucrative tax cuts even in time of war, thus creating huge deficits that our children and grandchildren will have to pay on our behalf?

Or how about "tax reform," in which the goal of many conservatives is to remove all federal taxes from "unearned income," meaning investment income collected almost exclusively by the affluent. Inevitably, that would put all of the burden of paying for government on earned income, the paychecks of people who go to work each day to make a living. At a time when globalization is already undercutting the earning power of the working and middle class, is it moral to use government to further comfort the comfortable, and further afflict the afflicted? --- follow the link for the remainder of the article.