You read the title right. Jesus. The PBS Newshour did a segment on the Missouri Senate race this evening. The piece quoted one Rev. Stoney Shaw of the Ferguson Baptist Church on his support for Todd Akin:

Some of my family was — my children: Dad, you’re not going to support him, are you? Everybody is turning against him. I said, well, there was another guy that everybody turned against, Jesus Christ. But he prevailed.

Is Rev. Shaw implying that exciting the outrage of civilized Missourians is the equivalent of the crucifixion of Christ? Or does the crucifixion here amount to no more than just getting the cold shoulder from most of the GOP? John Danforth as Pontius Pilate perhaps? Off hand, I can’t see the comparison. To take a few examples:

Jesus said: “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). Todd Akin said: “We’re overtaxing people who work [i.e. have money] and overpaying the people who don’t [i.e. the poor].”

Jesus threw the moneychangers out of the temple (Mark 11: 15-19). Todd Akin put himself up for sale.

Jesus fed the multitudes (Matthew 14: 13-21). Todd Akin wants to kill nutritional support, food stamps and subsidized school lunches, for the poor.

Jesus said: “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:6). Todd Akin supports a national day of prayer.

You get the drift? We could go on with this for a long, long time. The point is, if Akin has been metaphorically crucified, it’s highly unlikely that it had anything to do with a resemblance to Jesus. And that’s the important point to remember when you’re thinking about who’s apt to prevail in the end.