TRUE BLUE REPORT: The Poverty and Justice Bible

by TrueBlueMajority for Black Star Resistance

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(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017 Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017 at 8:52:18pm PST

The only reason Jessi Bohon didn’t get a Blue Ribbon yesterday was because I knew I wanted to feature her story today:

YouTube Video

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“As a Christian, my whole philosophy in life is pull up the unfortunate.”

I am surprised that line from Jessi Bohan’s viral video did not get even more attention.

People are saying Bohan is a Republican, and that may be true. She does live in a very red state. But Blue Drops are everywhere, and other reports say she voted for Hillary, without explaining whether Bohan was a Republican crossover vote for HRC or whether Bohan is a Democrat.

On one level it doesn’t matter. In politics who you really are is always less important than who people *think* you are.

Jessi Bohan’s comments went viral for many reasons. I believe it was effective because she has several identity hooks that made her a credible source for a demographic where Dems have few credible voices. I personally was thrilled just to see someone in a red state use Christian compassion as a reason to support a cornerstone Democratic issue.

We need to do more of this. We need to show the same outpouring of social media support to the next person who says what Jessi Bohan said. It would also be helpful if we took steps to identify more Jessi Bohans and encourage them to speak up.

We need to give a bigger megaphone to the churches that teach the kind of justice theology Ms. Bohan expresses here.

She did not pull out any scripture quotes because she didn’t need to. Even people barely familiar with what Christianity is supposed to stand for knew what she meant: Providing for those who have little or nothing. Caring for the sick. Lifting up the lowly. Showing hospitality to the outcast. Loving your neighbor as yourself. This is what Christianity in general is supposed to be about. But conservatives are fond of calling themselves Christian while rejecting some of the most basic themes in salvation history.

In about a minute she explains the importance of the individual mandate, unmasks a major lie about why some companies pulled out of the exchanges, and makes the case for universal healthcare.

The congresscritter regurgitates the same old talking points in response and Bohan isn’t buying it. She states boldly that some states played a political game with people’s lives, and it is enough to push the exasperated Rcon over the edge.

If we had more messaging that clear from messengers that authentic, then support for Ocare would start to match the high percentage of people who actually like what is in the program!

You may have heard of bibles where the words of Jesus are printed in red: to make them easier to find, to make it easier to see just how many sayings of his have come down to us, and to help highlight the themes he spoke about most.

The Poverty and Justice Bible has an interesting annotation twist of its own.

All the words in scripture that have anything to do with poverty and justice are highlighted in ORANGE.

Orange! That’s our DK color! That’s the Golden Gate Bridge color! That’s the Deaniac hat color! At this point, orange is second only to blue as a Democratic identifier.

One point of the poverty and justice bible is to visually indicate that justice, and kind treatment of the poor, are threaded throughout whole huge sections of the First Testament, as well as the gospels and epistles. Some of the prophetic books have chapters that are practically all in orange.

The other amazing learning is about volume.

Sometimes when newcomers to Christianity see one of those bibles with Jesus’s words in red, their first response is: “is that all of them? Doesn’t seem like very many.”

People have the opposite reaction with the Poverty and Justice Bible. They are usually shocked to see the sheer number of verses in orange; approximately 2000 verses depending on how you count.

Sometimes people look at the Poverty and Justice Bible and realize for the first time that the Johnny One Note Angry God they have heard about is not the full picture.

And if we could have just a few more people making statements like Jessi Bohan’s, we could flip prevailing public opinion of Obamacare from negative to positive long before Rcons have a chance to come up with a credible “replacement plan”.

In fact I saw a poll recently where the flip is already well in progress. Concrete proof we outnumber them.

So if you are a believer in a situation where you are explaining in a public setting, to a group of friends, or even to one of person why you support the ACA, or oppose the wall, or care about immigrant rights, please use that opportunity to connect your views to Christianity in the same matter-of-fact way Jessi Bohan did.

Shout it to the rooftops until the culture at large starts to make the connection. It blows conservative minds, makes persuadables go “huh? there are liberal Christians?” and attracts the kind of trolls you wear like a badge of honor because you are pissing off the right people.

Connecting progressive political beliefs with progressive religious beliefs is a tactic that definitely draws attention to the fact that we are out here, and also has the potential to open some eyes and change some minds.