A United Methodist pastor — echoed by a growing chorus of left-wing boosters — has had the gall to call Zohran Mamdani “perhaps the most Christ-like politician” and to praise what she called a “Christ-like system of government.” That clip and its applause show how some on the left now weaponize religion to justify expanding state power over family, church, and conscience.
Let’s be clear about who Mamdani is: he is the democratic socialist who just rode a youth-driven surge to capture New York City’s mayoralty, promising sweeping redistributive programs and a radical shift in the city’s governing philosophy. Whether you agree with his rise or not, his victory is real and recent, and it shows how powerful big-government messaging still is in urban America.
Mamdani ran on a platform of fare-free buses, universal public childcare, city-owned grocery stores, rent freezes, and aggressive tax hikes on the wealthy — a laundry list of government guarantees masquerading as compassion. Those policies are not abstract prayers; they are concrete promises to turn the city into a cradle-to-grave dependency machine that will require ever more power and spending to sustain.
Supporters will tell you he talks about “dignity” and “ensuring everyone lives with dignity,” and they mean it sincerely: many grassroots organizers and community leaders say his rhetoric is rooted in a moral imagination that prioritizes economic security. But dignity framed as something the state must provide is a dangerous redefinition of virtue; it places the government between families and the poor, substituting bureaucrats for the mercy of neighbors and churches.
Christ did call his followers to care for the poor, but he did not hand his ministry over to an all-powerful central authority that commands morality by ballot measure and endless taxation. The American experiment was built on limited government, voluntary charity, and the civic institutions — churches, families, civic associations — that actually cultivate character and responsibility, not on politicians promising dignity in exchange for votes.
Worse, Mamdani’s rise has not been without controversy: his statements and positions on Israel and other hot-button issues have inflamed large segments of the city and exposed raw tensions that make the idea of him as a unifying, Christ-like shepherd absurd. Praising a political program that provokes division and threatens free speech because it wraps itself in pious language is naive at best and dangerous at worst.
Hardworking Americans deserve better than sermons that translate into socialism at the ballot box. If you love your neighbor, you strengthen the institutions that actually sustain human dignity — families, churches, small businesses, and a free-people ethic — and you resist politicians who would replace personal responsibility with permanent dependence on the state. The true Christian witness is charity without coercion, and the faithful must call out this state-worshipping sermon for what it is before it costs us our liberty.
