It’s not all that surprising that Morgan subscribes to such nonsense:
Perhaps that wasn’t the sole reason, but his message was deemed as dangerous to the status quo then as it is today. I’m convinced if Jesus were to come back and preach the same message of love and acceptance, he’d be branded a liberal and hated for it by some of the very people who now claim to follow his example.
That’s such absolute nonsense it smacks of willful ignorance. Jesus Christ was crucified because he directly challenged the sovereign ruling power with his claims of kingship, not because of any subversive aspect of “love and acceptance”. If he had merely preached what Morgan apparently thinks was some sort of ancient hippie message of diversity, tolerance and higher taxes, the Pharisees, King Herod and the Romans would have been quite content to leave him alone. It was that small matter of CLAIMING TO BE KING, claiming to be God and having the indecency to do both while attracting a following that got the power structure down on him. The Sermon on the Mount had nothing to do with it whatsoever.
You may recall that Herod was trying to kill Jesus before he could preach any message at all, for exactly the same reason. As for the spiritual reason he had to be crucified, well, that should be obvious.
Furthermore, his message was not one of tolerance, but one of bigotry, separation and division. “No one comes to the Father but by me” is incredibly and quite literally judgmental. And if Jesus Christ came today, he’d likely be considered a rebellious potential militia member, a traitor calling for the violent overthrow of the government. I doubt he’d be marching for abortion rights, universal health care and higher salaries for public school teachers.
Considering the sharpness of his responses to nearly everyone who asked him a stupid question, I can’t figure out what Bible those who believe in a Sweet Cuddly Jesus have been reading. “How long do I have to put up with you morons?” is one of the continuing themes of his ministry. That, in itself, should be enough to convince the more intelligent among the skeptical of the veracity of the Bible as a historical document.