James Talarico

You should do that.

But for Jesus' listeners in the first century, the Samaritans were not just a different religious group.

The Samaritans were their sworn enemies.

And so he is pushing the boundaries on how we define neighbor and who we're supposed to love.

Loving our enemies...

Again, it's become trite in a culture dominated by Christianity, but none of us actually do that.

None of us actually love our enemies, even if we say we try to.

And so I share the same revulsion that Christians in halls of power are blatantly violating the teachings of Christianity on a daily basis and hurting our neighbors in the process.

What do you think of that?

I think she's partially right.

If you read the Sermon on the Mount, again, I think Jesus should have a say in what Christianity means.

In that sermon, he is the ultimate conservative and the ultimate progressive at the same time.

You know, as all great teachers, he is breaking us out of the dualistic thinking that plagues us.

He is rooting everything in his tradition, Judaism.

Everything goes back to Moses and the 10 commandments and the Torah, everything.

And he says, I'm not here to destroy the law.

I'm here to fulfill the law.

So he's connected to something that's bigger than himself.

But then he's also pushing us to take those teachings to the next level, to go deeper into them.

You know, the law tells you an eye for an eye.