The Real Question of WWJD

This is a response from someone that is a great friend to me. I asked him his thoughts on Christianity especially with what he sees right here in our city that we both live in and work in, the whole WWJD thing and the perspective he has on the "church" because he is not a christian but man does he "get it"!

Here it is, read it and weep:

What Would Jesus Do? a response from Steven May

We see this acronym plastered on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and hanging from key chains all in typical American fashion. And, keeping in step with typical American thought, it has become a meaningless gesture to be no more than a symbol of inclusion.

So, what would he do? A good question to be posed. First, we need to ask, are Jesus' life and words a set of stories to be told once a week to give individuals relief of their conscience as they stroll off the six other days to feed institutions that create poverty, war, and ignorance across the globe. Or, was his life and words an example, a call to action. If it is simple scripture to be quoted, then we are mere children poised on a fence gazing at an orchard, but never tasting the delicious fruit within. But, if it is in fact a call to action, the question is, what wouldn't Jesus do.

He wouldn't build a church that cost millions of dollars and took in even more in revenue, while children mere miles away picked through garbage to gain enough sustinence to live one more day.
How do I know this? Because he didn't, his church was no more than his body and the earth, and his life was dedicated to the needy.

What would he do then? He would openly defy authority in the church and in government, as he did in his time and was ultimately sentenced to death for it. And, as some churches openly display the flag of a nation built on the genocide of the indigenous people who came before, I wonder do they really consider what would Christ do. Would he wave the flag of a nation who's prisons are comprised almost exclusively of people from at or below the poverty line? The same prisons where 80% of the population is comprised of blacks, although they only make up 10% of the national population. Would he support a system that executes the mentally retarded, or anyone for that matter? For a non-white homeless man who was sentenced to death, we need to truly ask ourselves, what would Jesus do?

Does Christ hold a special place in his heart for conservative white upper-class americans, as many churches would lead you to believe? Or, does he love gay activists, communists, muslim fundamentalist bombers, abortion doctors, and drug addicts equally? I say he does, only because I've read his words and know the life he lived.

What would Jesus do? He would take action to help the poor, the imprisoned, the sick, the homeless. He would challenge the government that allows and perpetuates these social ills. He would challenge the churches who pick and choose doctrine to justify greed and material wealth, while children go hungry.

I know all these things because it is what he did, in his own life. So, maybe instead of hiding under fish symbols and acronyms, we should contemplate what Jesus did do.