What would Jesus say?

The Occupy protesters camped at St. Paul's cathedral posed the beautifully simply and provocative question: what would Jesus do? Asking that question on the steps of St. Paul's cathedral really adds some serious weight to the question like a punch to the solar plexus of the church.

The anti religion writer Vincent considered the question. I quote from a short passage of his summation: "If the bankers bring western civilisation and the world economy to its knees and the systems of commerce have to be scrapped and re-thought, would Jesus think that a good thing? Wouldn’t Jesus see this as an opportunity for humankind to start again? In my opinion, the core of his message would tell us our lives have been controlled by money for far too long. He might say this is an opportunity for us to throw off the shackles of possession, of spending valuable lives in pursuit of money when more is never enough. He would tell us that security and safety cannot be found in an inflated bank account, only in knowledge of self. He would tell us that a shiny new car is not the measure of a man or woman, but the light in his or her eyes. He might ask us to pity the banker who has rendered his own millions worthless, not pity him because he has rendered his own millions worthless, that is his fault and his karma, but pity the banker because he never realised the millions had no true worth in the first place. He might ask us to pity the politician consumed by a need to have power over the powerless, you and me. Of course, Jesus would forgive. Jesus was big on forgiveness. But he wouldn’t ask you to forgive for the bankers and politicians sake, he would ask you to forgive for your own sakes, so your hearts and souls don’t fester in anger and hatred. He would ask you to leave the corrupt to their corruption and let the bankers worry about their money for they will be swallowed whole by its weight. He may even ask the protesters to return to care for their families and leave the rich to stare piously from their mansions for too soon that mansion will be their grave. He would say leave the religious leaders to their alters of gold and hypocrisy and the fine fabrics they have clothed themselves in will be soaked with the tears of their shame. He would ask each individual to look to their own soul and ensure each can relax in conscience as the world will soon be shaken awake and it will be a new dawn of a new day filled with new hope and new opportunity when the meek will genuinely inherit the Earth. The meek are you and me. We are not weak and those who mistake meek for weak are soon to learn the difference. No, we are not weak, we are strong and growing stronger. What makes us meek is we are powerless. We gave away our power too easily to leaders who have created a society that has betrayed us. Now we gather together and are taking our power back. The traditional structures that have controlled us for too long can no longer contain us. We now take back power and send the old leaders away to make way for guidance from individual’s who can show us a new way, a way the respects our freedom. Respects our rights, respects our lives and the lives of all life forms with which we share this planet. But most importantly we look for guidance from people who respect our power."

The whole piece can be read here:

Now, before I finish, it is my turn to ask a question: would Jesus be a Christian?

We welcome your thoughts...