What is that phrase again? Oh yeah...What would Jesus do

[Dr Batsen D Belfry]

<RANT>

Perhaps a few people need to be reminded, it is "What would Jesus do", not "what would Jesus do if nobody was watching".

I am brought to this question after the latest hit-and-run on my van. Yes I have insurance. I also have a deductible. I also have a conscience.

The first hit-and-run was caught on tape. It cost $1800, $200 out of my pocket when we couldn't identify the person who ran their car mirror down my van from end to end. When we viewed the tape, we watched as the person got out of their car, walked around my van twice, got into their car, and left.

The organization who owned the parking lot could have identified the person had they tried, but the President and Executive Director decided they didn't want to make waves, so they didn't act. But when they came to me for dues, I told them they could wait until I make some more money since I am $200 short after paying the deductible. I should add this happened at a house of worship.

I had to eat the cost of the taillight last month. That was in the grocery store lot. Plenty of people around. No note.

The latest is a big enough dent in the wraparound bumper that the front fender was sticking out 6 inches. Again, enough damage you had to know you hit something. Again, no note.

My guess is Jesus would leave a fucking note.

Now, I don't know about everyone else, but I have this thing about personal responsibility. If I do something wrong, I need to make it right, especially if I am taking food off the table of someone else. I don't need some ethereal, abstract notion to make me do the right thing. I just do it.

For those that need constant reminding to do the right thing, there is just something fundamentally wrong. Once you learn right from wrong, it should be automatic. It is like riding a bike.

I am sorry, but this notion of what Jesus would do is just bullshit. It is a way to somehow absolve responsibility for one's own actions, like they can't figure it out unless they are wrapped in their own personal Shroud of Turin.

</RANT>

DBDB

[MysteryToMyself]

1. The DLC ask "What Would Judas Do?

:nuke:

[peacebird]

2. someone stole my "Who would Jesus Bomb" magnetic bumper sticker

last week.... It was on the car when I parked but not when I came back later.

Somehow I doubt they put it on their own car.

[elocs]

3. If only Christians would lead their lives by the motto WWJD.

This would be a much better world. I would admonish everybody to read the words of Jesus in the New Testament--just the words in red, none other. Certainly some are dogmatic, but most set an example and set the bar far higher than most Christians ever seem willing to try for. It reminds me of a scripture quote I remember where God says, "These people worship me with their words, but their hearts are far from me" or maybe that is my remembered paraphrase. For too many Christians the words of Jesus are just words, and not meant as a pattern and example for their lives. They practice a buffet style Biblical theology where they pick and choose the scriptures they want to follow and feel are important as they twist and torture other scriptures to make them say what they do not say.

Jesus was undoubtedly a liberal and a radical to the Conservatives of his day. He was a homeless man who only owned the clothes on his back and depended upon the charity of others to meet his daily needs. He cared for the poor and fed them when he was concerned that they might faint from hunger. He healed the poor. He said the woman who had little and gave a penny gave more than the rich. In the Temple he overturned the tables of the money changers, calling them thieves. In dealing with the woman caught in the act of adultery he did not condemn her as being a whore, but simply told her to go and sin no more. He said to render unto God what is God's and unto Caesar what is Caesar's (wow--that sounds like separation of church and state). He was arrested on a trumped up charge, tortured, then executed. Outside of the religious aspects, if there was a man today who did and said and experienced the things that are written of Jesus, we would consider that person to be a saint and a martyr.

I will say this from the point of view as one who is now, at best, an agnostic, that if I knew somebody who truly lived their life by the motto "What Would Jesus Do?" I would have great faith and trust in that individual. Unfortunately, from what I have seen, most Christians are not even in the ballpark of living by that motto or living by the words of Jesus. That is unfortunate for all of us, believers and nonbelievers alike.

[mnhtnbb]

4. And their excuse for not living according to WWJD is they're "sinners"

[elocs]

5. In the eyes of their God, that is not an excuse. n/m

[ComerPerro]

6. My last car was hit 4 spearate times while parked,

not to mentioned scratched and keyed in many places.

And my current car has been hit once (as far as I know) and had the truckbed cover slashed across.


Aren't people great?