Politics

Here’s The Bible Story Ocasio-Cortez Says Is Her Favorite

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Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she loves the biblical story describing how Jesus Christ threw money-lenders out of the temple.

Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with the progressive National Catholic Reporter that she considers herself Catholic and “grew up in the Catholic faith.” She told the publication that her favorite story from the Bible is when Jesus threw money changers out of the temple.

The Democratic New York representative was referring to the biblical story, “the cleansing of the temple,” found in Matthew 21.

“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” 

“You see Christ as human,” Ocasio-Cortez said, adding how she liked seeing Jesus “as a human being who could lose his temper.”

.@AOC talking about Jesus in @NCRonline today.https://t.co/Db0CNspC50 pic.twitter.com/5gP9SeQ0br

— Zac Davis (@zacdayvis) October 27, 2020

Ocasio-Cortez said that the story shows how corruption may occur through small decisions made through convenience rather than through evil people. This story shows “how a sacred space became co-opted,” she added.

“It happened via incremental decisions by many people,” she said, according to NCROnline, comparing the biblical story to how modern day political decisions are impacted by big money, and emphasizing that the money-changers in America must be confronted the way Jesus did.

Ocasio-Cortez is one of several Democratic politicians, such as 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who have drawn criticism for supporting and advocating for policies which the Catholic Church explicitly opposes, such as abortion.