In my article, Myth, Ritual & Belief, I touched on this whole fad “What would Jesus do?” (WWJD) fad which gained such popularity a few years ago. One of the reasons I think it really took off was that it set the focus of Christianity away from lists of dogmatic teachings back to the actual story of Jesus. And when I say “the story” of Jesus here, I’m not just talking about the orthodox literal reading of the Gospels. I’m talking about Jesus as a character who people can relate to, with motivations, relationships, successes and failures.
The other reason I think it was such a big hit is that it was a question, and not an answer. It was not a statement, a teaching or a belief, “Here’s what Jesus would do,” (HWJWD). Plenty of annoying & questionable examples of that seem to exist. Also, it wasn’t a command for what to do once you figured out Jesus’s probably next move: “What Would Jesus do? Do that!” (WWJDDT). Instead, it was a tool which allowed people to look at their own life story, and look at the story of Jesus, and then compare and contrast the two, and then from there to decide for yourself the bext course of action.
In a way, I wonder if that’s what religion is really for. People talk about how religion is man’s attempt to answer the toughest questions in life. But maybe the focus of that traditional definition is wrong, and too stuff. Maybe religion should help us ask questions, and ask them better and more articulately, and to give us a wealth of stories to draw from as guides while we continue on our quest.
- END -
ASSOCIATED CONTENT @TMBCHR (Auto-Generated)
- Jesus as an organizing principle
- I am Jesus
- Gospel of Thomas
- Jesus Saves: 50 cents on Tampax
- Great Jesus Quote
