Jesus Putting Children in Detention Centers? Viral 'GOP Jesus' Video Mocks Trump and GOP
A comedic spoof video portraying Jesus if He had adopted perceived Republican positions on issues such as immigration and health care has gone viral online.
The video, published on YouTube and Facebook on Saturday by comedy collective Friend Dog Studios, features an actor depicting Christ teaching His disciples, but taking up social positions in a manner which Democrats often accuse Republicans of holding.
It begins with Jesus holding a little child, and saying "Whoever welcomes one of these little ones in my name might be letting in a murderer or a drug." He then hands the child over to another disciple, saying, "Let's get her to a detention center, you know, until we can figure out what's going on."
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Captions in the video then point to the real Biblical passages that the scenes are spoofing. Mark 9:37 for instance is quoted for the scene with the child, though in reality the verse shows Christ preaching the opposite.
"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me," Jesus says in the real verse.
The scene was likely inspired by the immigration crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border and President Donald Trump's policies of separating thousands of children from their parents and placing them in detention centers.
The video, which has been viewed over 750,000 times as of Tuesday morning, depicts a number of other such scenes. The comedy-version of Jesus in the video says: "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, and behold, now I'm all lazy and entitled. You shouldn't have done that."
"Do unto others as you suspect they might want to do to you," he adds in another exchange.
"What has a man profited he gained the whole world but lost his soul? A lot — he has profited a lot. One soul for the whole world? That is an amazing deal," he continues.
At one point he references Republican concerns with former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her work-related emails controversy, stating:
"Why do you look at the speck of dust in your brother's eye, but ignore the plank in your own? Because of ... her emails."
In a teaching about retaliation, the spoof Jesus says:
"If a man strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him and shoot him. That is the law."
He goes on to insist on everyone saying "Merry Christmas" in December. Later, when a sick woman comes to him begging to be healed, he says that he will not help her, because she doesn't have the money.
"It's a sad story, but it doesn't make me responsible," he tells her.
The spoof Jesus goes on to quote largely the opposite versions of the words in the Bible, and claims about people getting into Heaven:
"The richer the better really. Maybe get a solid gold house just to be sure."
The video ends with a real Good News Translation quote from Christ in Mark 7:9, where He tells the Pharisees:
"You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching."
Major Christian leaders, such as Timothy Keller, author and founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, have argued that following Jesus' teachings does not fit well with America's two-party political system.
"For example, following both the Bible and the early church, Christians should be committed to racial justice and the poor, but also to the understanding that sex is only for marriage and for nurturing family," Keller wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times at the end of September.
"One of those views seems liberal and the other looks oppressively conservative. The historical Christian positions on social issues do not fit into contemporary political alignments."
Watch the "GOP Jesus" video below: