The complete guide to debunking right-wing misinterpretations of the Bible-from economics and immigration to gender and sexuality.

Jesus loves borders, guns, unborn babies, and economic prosperity and hates homosexuality, taxes, welfare, and universal healthcare-or so say many Republican politicians, pundits, and preachers. Through outrageous misreadings of the New Testament gospels that started almost a century ago, conservative influencers have conjured a version of Jesus who speaks to their fears, desires, and resentments. In Republican Jesus, Tony Keddie explains not only where this right-wing Christ came from and what he stands for but also why this version of Jesus is a fraud. By restoring Republicans' cherry-picked gospel texts to their original literary and historical contexts, Keddie dismantles the biblical basis for Republican positions on hot-button issues like Big Government, taxation, abortion, immigration, and climate change. At the same time, he introduces readers to an ancient Jesus whose life experiences and ethics were totally unlike those of modern Americans, conservatives and liberals alike.

Tony Keddie is Assistant Professor of Early Christian History and Literature at the University of British Columbia and author of Class and Power in Roman Palestine and Revelations of Ideology.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
A Note to Readers

Introduction

PART ONE. WHO IS REPUBLICAN JESUS?
1. A Portrait of Republican Jesus

PART TWO. WHERE DOES REPUBLICAN JESUS COME FROM?
2. Early Modern Heralds
3. A Corporate Assault on the New Deal
4. Tea and Prosperity in the Age of Trump

PART THREE. WHAT DOES REPUBLICAN JESUS STAND FOR? IS HE RIGHT OR WRONG?
5. Family Values
6. Charity
7. Church and State
8. Protection from Invaders
9. The End of the World

Afterword
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index