Jesus would not be welcome by Senate Republicans, according to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
On the first day of Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings, Ocasio-Cortez said that Republican senators would throw Jesus out of the Senate chamber.
The firebrand congresswoman said in a since-deleted Tweet that she is “Sick and tired of Republicans who co-opt faith as an excuse to advance bigotry and barbarism. Fact is, if today Christ himself came to the floor of Congress and repeated his teachings, many would malign him as a radical and eject him from the chamber.”
Ocasio-Cortez linked to a previous statement she gave in the House saying the same thing. Later on Monday, she tweeted, “When politicians use faith as an excuse to pass and uphold laws that seize control of people’s bodies but not guarantee them healthcare, feed the poor, shelter the homeless, or welcome the stranger, you have to wonder if it’s really about faith at all.”
The tweets were in response to statements given by Republicans who were upset with attacks on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s faith. Judge Barrett previously faced questions about whether she could fulfill her duties impartially due to her Catholic faith. This continued, although more subtly, in the hearings that took place for most of the rest of this week.
Republicans claimed that these attacks not only violate Barrett’s right to practice her religion freely, but they also impose a religious test, which is unconstitutional.
Whether Ocasio-Cortez was saying that Barrett would promote bigotry and barbarism or if her comments were only in reference to the senators is unclear. What is clear is that the congresswoman thinks that the only reason people talk about religious liberty is because they are bigots. To her, the right to refuse to perform a service that goes against your deeply held beliefs is bigotry.
The refusal to perform a service is not bigotry or discrimination against a person, but rather the exercise of their Constitutional right to disagree with a message or activity. Take the case of Jack Phillips, a baker from Colorado who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex marriage, Phillips asserts that he does not discriminate against people, only messages. He is willing to serve all people, but he is not willing to participate in a same-sex wedding because it goes against his Christian belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. Ocasio-Cortez thinks that Phillips and other business owners have no right to refuse a service for any reason and that they are required to participate, even if that activity goes against the teachings of their faith.
Let’s talk about barbarism for a moment. AOC takes great issue with Republicans wanting to restrict abortion. To her, merely holding a pro-life view is oppressive and barbaric. What, in fact, is barbaric is the act of abortion. Sucking a baby from the womb and dismembering it is violent and cruel. Using a saline injection to burn a baby alive is as excruciatingly painful and brutal as you can get. While this method of abortion is far rarer than the early stage procedures, it is still unequivocally immoral but remains supported by Ocasio-Cortez and her pantomimes. Ocasio-Cortez is a zealous advocate for abortion, which calls in to question her accusations of barbarism.
Ocasio-Cortez claims that it is a fact that Republic senators would throw Jesus out of the Senate chamber despite, as the Daily Wire pointed out, the fact that the vast majority of Republicans identify as Christian. This baseless accusation is not a fact — it is a smear.
Ocasio-Cortez has no right to malign the faith of senators or anyone else simply because they disagree with her policies. And make no mistake: It is about policy. Ocasio-Cortez likes to claim that Jesus was a socialist because she is a socialist, and now she is using Jesus to make this argument about how Republicans would treat Jesus because Republicans disagree with her, not because they disagree with Jesus. As we recently wrote at the Falkirk Center, Jesus was not a socialist.
And the congresswoman loves to criticize the religious right for using Christianity for their political purposes—even as she consistently tries to manipulate Christianity’s teachings for her own political goals.
Those on the left either intentionally misrepresent the teachings of Scripture or misunderstand its teachings. It seems more likely, however, that it is the former. The left supports the removal of God from every sphere of life, opposes the right to adhere to religious convictions, supports an increasingly anti-Christian agenda, and favors a socialist economic and political philosophy that is staunchly anti-God.
