Participate

I’ve been kind of on a Jesus kick lately. I keep thinking about the slogan, “What Would Jesus Do?” and like any other self-respecting liberal/progressive, it makes my skin crawl. Why? Because this slogan is short-hand for “I’m a believer, and I’m saved and I know more than you about what God, and the Son of God, aka Jesus, want for our country because I have a special hotline phone that dials God’s extension directly, and God doesn’t like homosexuals, or People for the American Way, let alone the ACLU, and God believes in the free market, and capitalism, and God doesn’t believe in abortion or stem cell research, or basically any kind of science, because it’s all about following His word, and even though the Bible has all kinds of contradictions and was written a super-long time ago, luckily for you I am able to interpret what He means because I’ve been saved; so if there’s anything you’re confused about, I’ll be happy to translate for you. Oh one more thing, Jesus really was white and He takes a keen interest in the outcome of sporting events. Especially baseball.”

So back to WWJD. And since those folks on the other side of the fence from me seem to have no trouble speaking for what God and Jesus intend for us, I’m going to follow their lead. This is what I think Jesus would do if he were here right now. I think this list calls for bullet points:

• I’m thinking he might wander down Broadway, right here in NYC, down to Wall Street and stop in at the NYSE, and maybe talk to folks there, you know, about the money changers and remind them of the concept of usury
• Perhaps he’d wander up Broadway, all the way to mid-town and hang out in Times Square for a bit and after taking a look at the pretty neon lights, check out all the tourists in their Disney appliqué clothes, and then find someone to ask about what happened to all of the hookers and addicts
• Maybe he’d have a pretzel (definitely not a hot dog) then go find those hookers and drug users and stay with them until he was sure they got the message that no matter what their current situation, and in spite of how society thinks they are worthless, that they are not, and that God loves them unconditionally
• I think he might also head to the Bronx, or even Queens, visit a deportation facility or two, definitely some prisons, and in the midst of all of that, find a few who would kind of sort of understand his message and he’d spend some time with them getting them up to speed on the best way to keep that message going

The New Jersey Senate just voted down a measure to extend the right to marry to same sex couples. I’m not interested right this minute in debating that issue or any of the other hot button issues of the day. I would, however like to point out that we would all do a much better job as human beings if, when we do debate any of these issues, before we start making assumptions about WWJD, we remind ourselves of Jesus’ number one message, the number one message of any of the great spiritual teachers.

The message on the top of His list is this – YOU ARE LOVED UNCONDITIONALLY. And I think the second message on His list is this – PASS IT ON.

Do you have a cause? Is there something you think you might like to do, something that makes you think, Hmm, this might be something that Jesus Would Do. Do you want to participate?

Here’s a link to get you started; http://www.takepart.com/.