Commentary: What would Jesus really do?

[altadawg]

Great article!!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/04/mar...sus/index.html


"I stand here today not as a Republican or a liberal. And don't bother calling me a Democrat or a conservative. I am a man, an African-American man who has professed that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that's to whom I bow down.

If you concur, it's time to stop allowing a chosen few to speak for the masses. Quit letting them define the agenda."

[Dirtydawg]

Decent article. I agree with some of what he says, however this part:

I'm looking for the day when Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Joyce Meyer, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, James Kennedy, Rod Parsley, " Patriot Pastors" and Rick Warren will sit at the same table as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Cynthia Hale, Eddie L. Long, James Meek, Fred Price, Emmanuel Cleaver and Floyd Flake to establish a call to arms on racism, AIDS, police brutality, a national health care policy, our sorry education system.

is what I take exception with. I don't know much about the people listed after Jesse and Al, but there are no two bigger hate mongerers than Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Unless they change their rhetoric, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to sit at the table with them. The other part of the this paragraph that I have a problem with is the implication that Jesus would do anything about AIDS, police brutality, a national health care policy and bad education system. Show me in the Bible where he says anything about all that. See, that's the problem I have with people asking WWJD. They think that just because Jesus' taught about loving your neighbor, that it's a call to arms to justify every type of social program people feel like funding. It's not. The part I do agree with, though, is that we all need to come to agreement as Christians and work together instead of against each other. Unfortunately, that'll never happen as long as you have people justifying the mis-interpretation of scriptures to allow for their sinful behaviors.

[champion110]

Decent article. I agree with some of what he says, however this part:



is what I take exception with. I don't know much about the people listed after Jesse and Al, but there are no two bigger hate mongerers than Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Unless they change their rhetoric, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to sit at the table with them. The other part of the this paragraph that I have a problem with is the implication that Jesus would do anything about AIDS, police brutality, a national health care policy and bad education system. Show me in the Bible where he says anything about all that. See, that's the problem I have with people asking WWJD. They think that just because Jesus' taught about loving your neighbor, that it's a call to arms to justify every type of social program people feel like funding. It's not. The part I do agree with, though, is that we all need to come to agreement as Christians and work together instead of against each other. Unfortunately, that'll never happen as long as you have people justifying the mis-interpretation of scriptures to allow for their sinful behaviors.

Dirty, can you see how the article is stating that there is guilt on BOTH sides of the equation? I think it is an excellent article. I think I posted a couple of years ago on the issues that I believed were important and that we should take Christianity back from those few people on the far right that think they can speak for all Christians. Same goes with the far left. There is a place to come together around issues such as poverty, education, and loving thy neighbor. That was the true message of Jesus.

[Dirtydawg]

Dirty, can you see how the article is stating that there is guilt on BOTH sides of the equation? I think it is an excellent article. I think I posted a couple of years ago on the issues that I believed were important and that we should take Christianity back from those few people on the far right that think they can speak for all Christians. Same goes with the far left. There is a place to come together around issues such as poverty, education, and loving thy neighbor. That was the true message of Jesus.

That's funny, I don't remember any scriptures in which Jesus directed us to set up a public school system. I always thought His true message was that there is no salvation but through Him.

[altadawg]

and, just for the record, I'm against gay marriage and abortion, in most cases!

Pretty crazy for someone who usually votes Dem, huh??

[daybreaker2]

That's funny, I don't remember any scriptures in which Jesus directed us to set up a public school system. I always thought His true message was that there is no salvation but through Him.

its also funny that I dont remember Jesus's scriptures about bombing abortion clinics, beating gay people to death, and starting wars.

The point about public education is that Jesus talked about love and compassion, and forcing children to endure substandard education isnt quite loving or compassionate. Of course, substandard education is a good way for the neo-cons to make sure they always have people following them who believe "Jesus = war on muslims" and "Saddam = 9/11" which is why neo-cons are anti-education. The stupider people are, the more likely they are to be neo-con followers.

[johnnylightnin]

its also funny that I dont remember Jesus's scriptures about bombing abortion clinics, beating gay people to death, and starting wars.

Your posts just get dumber and dumber.

[drumlogic37]

its also funny that I dont remember Jesus's scriptures about bombing abortion clinics, beating gay people to death, and starting wars..

Are straw men, special pleading and hasty generalizations no longer a logical fallacies? Because if they are, then this might be the stupidest thing I've read in a long time.

[aubunique]

Dirty, did getting married make you change or was it all those losing seasons by the Bulldogs? This drives me to an extreme statement such as I haven't made in years. READ the REST of WORLD LITERATURE! Using the Bible as somelthing more than it is just doesn't wash.

Sorry, I hadn't read the political board in months and forgot that Tech grads aren't all tolerant or Jesus-like. No, Jesus didn't say build public schools or build condominiums on wetland or steep slopes. But people do it, and the schools are important. Jesus didn't say go forth and multiply. That is an old-testament comment by a desert war-lord who needed workers to try to make a crop in a wasteland. Jesus likely would advocate birth control big time if he were alive today. What evidence is there that those people had a direct line to the creator of the universe any more than your friendly bagel salesman has at the local coffee house?

Be Jesus. Read what he is quoted as saying and think a bit and maybe you might actually guess what he would do. I don't think He would make war or have any problem with Muslims or Jews or any other religious group. He taught ethics and showed the way to live. If his words implied an after-life and He were brought to life today, he might try to set the record straight.
The fact that makes a portion of Muslims dangerous is that they believe in an after-life and seem not to have Thou Shalt Not Kill among their accepted commandments. And our nation has for some years been under control of people who claim to be Christians and discount Thou Shalt Not Kill. Oh, you are right. Jesus didn't speak that commandment. He assumed it was obvious because it was a part of his Jewish heritage and that of people around him.
He retaught the commandments in parable and in personal behavior. If Jesus lived today, he would be well-informed and know the traditons of the past 2,000 years as well as of the centuries before in his small part of the Middle East which was all he had access to in his day in a very unsophisticated part of the world.

Today, Jesus would be a social reformer, an advocate of doing everything to slow global warming, a teacher of recycling and protecting the soil and water and air. He would make fun of possible people who shop in the mall. No, He wouldn't make fun of anyone. But somehow he would speak against consumerism and explain better than most of us can how to live without waste and excess consumption of resources.
Now, I can't provide proof that Jesus would be the man of integrity and compassion I believed He was when I was a kid anymore than anyone else can provide proof that He would be the racist, fascist George Bush apparently thinks he would be if he returned.
All this was written because I realized that a lot of people on this board didn't grow up when Louisiana Tech and every other public school in Louisiana was segregated. That many people don't have the background experience (not talking about hearsay or book-learning) to realize that everything Sharpton and Jackson say has a basis in factual mistreatment of black people by white people and maybe not so much mistreatment by white PEOPLE AS BY A SYSTEM that taught the white people to believe that skin color and racial background or national origin or religious affiliation or lack thereof or age or financial status or any of an endless list of variations from some little southern town's idea of normality might be a justification for prejudice and WORSE, maybe, convinced far too many black people to believe that suffering such mistreatment would get them into Heaven was the right way to live.
OK, so I grew up in Shreveport (Yankee or Texan part of Louisiana) in a neighborhood where despite segregation I had black friends (who went to different schools) and with a maternal grandfather born in Battle Creek, Mich., and a maternal grandmother who was raised by a black nanny in South Carolina and showed enormous love for that woman when they met again when I was a sub-teen and saw them hug on a dirt road in a South Carolina between a corn field and a seemingly endless tobacco patch plus a father who grew up believing the highest and best things Jesus said and acting as though the commandments were his laws of life and had as many black people as white people at his funeral that overflowed the Methodist church in Ringgold. When the so-called Citizens' Councils came to Louisiana, my Dad took me to a meeting and left in disgust, not saying much about the racist gibberish but showing faith in his son to realize the baseness of the rhetoric I heard there.

I don't cast stones, because I am not without sin. But I respect those who try to maintain their integrity whatever that means to them. So continue the discussion and try to forgive those who don't agree with you. It is tough, because we can't easily understand where the other is coming from.

I do enjoy trying to understand. But sometimes it just seems impossible.

[johnnylightnin]

Aub, that's the most contridictory post I've ever read in my life...

Don't elevate the Bible above what it is, but be Jesus? What a waste of time. If the Bible isn't what it claims to be then you can't know how to "be Jesus". If it is what it claims to be, you can't be Jesus.

Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Savior of mankind. This mix and match "feel the Jesus, be the Jesus" crap is worthless.

[FishingBack]

No politician can be like Jesus because then they'd have to give away all their millions of campaign money to the poor, instead of trying to tax it out of everyone else to give it to the poor.

[Bigdog13]

Dirty, did getting married make you change or was it all those losing seasons by the Bulldogs? This drives me to an extreme statement such as I haven't made in years. READ the REST of WORLD LITERATURE! Using the Bible as somelthing more than it is just doesn't wash.

Sorry, I hadn't read the political board in months and forgot that Tech grads aren't all tolerant or Jesus-like. No, Jesus didn't say build public schools or build condominiums on wetland or steep slopes. But people do it, and the schools are important. Jesus didn't say go forth and multiply. That is an old-testament comment by a desert war-lord who needed workers to try to make a crop in a wasteland. Jesus likely would advocate birth control big time if he were alive today. What evidence is there that those people had a direct line to the creator of the universe any more than your friendly bagel salesman has at the local coffee house?

Be Jesus. Read what he is quoted as saying and think a bit and maybe you might actually guess what he would do. I don't think He would make war or have any problem with Muslims or Jews or any other religious group. He taught ethics and showed the way to live. If his words implied an after-life and He were brought to life today, he might try to set the record straight.
The fact that makes a portion of Muslims dangerous is that they believe in an after-life and seem not to have Thou Shalt Not Kill among their accepted commandments. And our nation has for some years been under control of people who claim to be Christians and discount Thou Shalt Not Kill. Oh, you are right. Jesus didn't speak that commandment. He assumed it was obvious because it was a part of his Jewish heritage and that of people around him.
He retaught the commandments in parable and in personal behavior. If Jesus lived today, he would be well-informed and know the traditons of the past 2,000 years as well as of the centuries before in his small part of the Middle East which was all he had access to in his day in a very unsophisticated part of the world.

Today, Jesus would be a social reformer, an advocate of doing everything to slow global warming, a teacher of recycling and protecting the soil and water and air. He would make fun of possible people who shop in the mall. No, He wouldn't make fun of anyone. But somehow he would speak against consumerism and explain better than most of us can how to live without waste and excess consumption of resources.
Now, I can't provide proof that Jesus would be the man of integrity and compassion I believed He was when I was a kid anymore than anyone else can provide proof that He would be the racist, fascist George Bush apparently thinks he would be if he returned.
All this was written because I realized that a lot of people on this board didn't grow up when Louisiana Tech and every other public school in Louisiana was segregated. That many people don't have the background experience (not talking about hearsay or book-learning) to realize that everything Sharpton and Jackson say has a basis in factual mistreatment of black people by white people and maybe not so much mistreatment by white PEOPLE AS BY A SYSTEM that taught the white people to believe that skin color and racial background or national origin or religious affiliation or lack thereof or age or financial status or any of an endless list of variations from some little southern town's idea of normality might be a justification for prejudice and WORSE, maybe, convinced far too many black people to believe that suffering such mistreatment would get them into Heaven was the right way to live.
OK, so I grew up in Shreveport (Yankee or Texan part of Louisiana) in a neighborhood where despite segregation I had black friends (who went to different schools) and with a maternal grandfather born in Battle Creek, Mich., and a maternal grandmother who was raised by a black nanny in South Carolina and showed enormous love for that woman when they met again when I was a sub-teen and saw them hug on a dirt road in a South Carolina between a corn field and a seemingly endless tobacco patch plus a father who grew up believing the highest and best things Jesus said and acting as though the commandments were his laws of life and had as many black people as white people at his funeral that overflowed the Methodist church in Ringgold. When the so-called Citizens' Councils came to Louisiana, my Dad took me to a meeting and left in disgust, not saying much about the racist gibberish but showing faith in his son to realize the baseness of the rhetoric I heard there.

I don't cast stones, because I am not without sin. But I respect those who try to maintain their integrity whatever that means to them. So continue the discussion and try to forgive those who don't agree with you. It is tough, because we can't easily understand where the other is coming from.

I do enjoy trying to understand. But sometimes it just seems impossible.

This post is so riddled with errors I don't even have any idea where to begin.

Jesus is who he is. You can't just make up some dude you think would be the perfect god in your own world and then label him Jesus. At least change your gods name to something else out of respect for the Christians who read your posts because frankly when you post about Jesus I find it offensive. I could keep going but I am dumbfounded as to why you post some of this stuff and it's better that I end here.

[champion110]

The fact is that there are MANY ideas of what we think Jesus would do today. Jesus IS here today. The question is if we choose to listen to him. Some bury themselves in rhetoric and close their minds to actually LISTENING. We pick and choose what we want to hear and how we interpret what we read. None of us know the complete answer. I can't say that my beliefs are the true way, but the Christian Right has no right to speak for me, either. It is time to rise to the occasion. Read about what Jesus actually did while he was physically here on earth. THAT is the example that should be followed. I hope we can all strive toward that.

[johnnylightnin]

I don't know exactly what Jesus would do today. I do know that the Jews thought the messiah would be a political King and that's one of the biggest reasons that they missed him.

[duckbillplatty]

Decent article. I agree with some of what he says, however this part is what I take exception with. I don't know much about the people listed after Jesse and Al, but there are no two bigger hate mongerers than Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Unless they change their rhetoric, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to sit at the table with them. The other part of the this paragraph that I have a problem with is the implication that Jesus would do anything about AIDS, police brutality, a national health care policy and bad education system. Show me in the Bible where he says anything about all that. See, that's the problem I have with people asking WWJD. They think that just because Jesus' taught about loving your neighbor, that it's a call to arms to justify every type of social program people feel like funding. It's not. The part I do agree with, though, is that we all need to come to agreement as Christians and work together instead of against each other. Unfortunately, that'll never happen as long as you have people justifying the mis-interpretation of scriptures to allow for their sinful behaviors.

This is the best reply I've read on this board in a long time. I am absolutely fed up with the way Jesus' name is used to justify things that are not based in scripture.

Like public schools... Don't make student-led prayer against the law and then say that schools need help because Jesus would want it that way. BTW - As a public school teacher, I support public schools, but not because "Jesus would".

Let's face what this article really addresses:
Main point : You people who vote Republican just because of your faith are too narrowly focused on the issues they feed you and that the Democratic party's social programs fit Christianity better.

Secondary point: Become better Christians. (By voting Democrat.)

Yes, the divorce rate among Christians is way too high. Yes, some Christian talk show hosts spew hate. (Although not more than Al or Jesse.) But you will not convince me that just becuase Jesus was a good guy, I should vote Democrat.