You can't reconcile Ayn Rand and Jesus

[RamboLiberal]

The new darling of the Republican Party is pro-choice and anti-religion. She once wrote that, since "an embryo has no rights," abortion "should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved." And when asked by Playboy magazine whether religion "ever offered anything of constructive value to human life" she answered "no," adding that "faith, as such, is extremely detrimental to human life."

Her name is Ayn Rand, and though she died in 1982 this novelist, philosopher and anti-communist crusader is the hot new thing in the GOP. The American public may have met the April opening Atlas Shrugged, a film based on her novel of the same name, with a collective shrug, but Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh tout her books, and her genius. And the opening line of "Atlas Shrugged" ("Who is John Galt?") pops up regularly on handmade signs at Tea Party rallies.

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In Rand's Manichaean world, it is not God vs. Satan, but individualism vs. collectivism. While Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor," she sings Hosannas to the rich. The heroes of Atlas Shrugged (which, alas, is only slightly shorter than the Bible) are captains of industry such as John Galt. The villains are the "looters" and "moochers" — people who by hook (guilt) or by crook (government coercion) steal from the hard-won earnings of others.

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As someone who has written extensively on the religious illiteracy of the American public, I am not surprised that few Republicans today seem to understand that marrying Ayn Rand to Jesus Christ is like trying to interest Lady Gaga in Donny Osmond. But there is nothing Christian about Rand's Objectivism. In fact, it is farther from Christianity than the Marxism that Rand so abhorred. Despite the attempt of the advertising executive Bruce Barton to turn Jesus into a CEO in his novel The Man Nobody Knows (1925), Jesus was a first-class, grade-A "moocher."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-06-05-Ayn-Rand-and-Jesus-dont-mix_n.htm

Stephen Prothero is a religion professor at Boston University and the author of the book God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World — and Why Their Differences Matter.

[thereismore]

1. You can't reconcile Jesus with Jesus. nt

[Crunchy Frog]

2. The difficulty, IMO, is reconciling Jesus with Christianity.

[dkf]

3. Yup.

[Prophet 451]

11. "I like your Christ but not your Christians..."

"I like your Christ but not your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ" ~ Mahatma Ghandi.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Ayn Rand was a hypocritical sociopath. Jesus was a mythological figure who probably never existed.

I'm not sure why I should give a shit if they can be 'reconciled' or not.

[Rabblevox]

5. But you CAN reconcile Ayn Rand with Charles Manson...just sayin.../nt

[rpannier]

8. If Rand had started writing in 1973, Chuckie probably would have been her inspiration

[democracy1st]

6. K & R

[rpannier]

7. Jesus was a first-class, grade-A "moocher

I like it.
I'm gonna have it made into a bumper sticker

[d_r]

9. I've been seeing "Jesus was a libertarian"

Anyone who thinks that either doesn't understand libertarianism or doesn't know the teachings of Christ.

[Prophet 451]

10. PLEASE tell me you're kidding...

I'm neither a Libertarian or a Christian but good grief...

[Prophet 451]

12. Rand was a sociopath

According to Robert Hare's checklist, Rand was a psychopath (the difference between psychopath and sociopath is down to causes and only of academic interest) and her "philosophy" is a training manual for sociopaths. It's nothing more than yet another entry into mankind's endless search for a moral cover for naked greed, a "philosophy" that says the only proper concern of the individual should be satisfying the individuals own desires, that compassion should be anathema. Sociopathy, in other words.

I could go on at some length and have in the past but really, all I need to say is that I think Rand was one of the most cold-bloodedly evil women in human history.

[The Unawriter]

13. You can if it's C Street Jesus

He's hung like a horse, swills beer, and solves every problem with violence. Give Praise!

[bemildred]

14. You definitely can ignore the contradictions though. And it can pay really well to do so. nt

[felix_numinous]

15. 'The enemy of my enemy

is my friend'--is rule of law to sociopaths. Randians and RW christians have united because they share a common sense of entitlement. This common ground is what I believe is used as a foundation to exclude and dehumanize others.

This kind of alliance differs from solidarity in that it is used to rationalize violence and oppression. Solidarity is inclusive and aims to empower the individual for greater understanding and compassion.

[saras]

16. Sure you can - it's done in Matthew 4:9

"All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."

Whether it's "worth" doing is another matter, but Ayn Rand's values are, in fact, directly addressed by Jesus.

If, on the other hand, by "reconcile" you mean "get on the same side", nope, you can't do it. Even if Jesus is purely mythological, the myths still say something specific about Jesus that distinguishes him from, say, Enkidu. And what little is said is in violent opposition to the values espoused by Rand in her nonfiction and her characters in her fiction.

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, RamboLiberal.