How Would Jesus Vote If He Lived in Jefferson County?

You know from teachings based on the Good Book that you have a friend in Jesus. But how does Jesus know He has a friend in you? Consider this question from the highly hypothetical point of view that Jesus is your actual next door neighbor. 

I can’t claim here to have a sure answer, but it likely would be because Jesus, your neighbor, sees that you’re his friend because you care enough to take his interests to heart. He says He died for you, remember, and He didn’t do that so you could run around being dismissive of that sacrifice. He laid out a set of principles about how to conduct yourself. To keep it simple He encapsulated it all in a single guideline, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Or less Biblically, “Don’t be an asshole.”

So this leaves me wondering about someone who claims to be in Jesus’s good graces, but does stuff that looks kind of iffy. Stuff that it would be hard to think of Jesus doing Himself.  For instance, would Jesus be okay with pulling innocent people away from their families and sending them to prison? Would Jesus have been more likely to create a food pantry to feed the hungry than to lock the cupboard doors? And what would Jesus have done to prevent people from dying from a horrible disease? Would he have taken away their medicine? Probably not in any of these cases.

So what does He make of someone who’s doing the opposite of what He would have done? As we’re told from the Good Book–at least the new part–Jesus would certainly not condone what he did, but He would forgive it. So sure, Jesus would be his friend, but He’d think, probably rightly, that this guy really doesn’t treat Him like a friend.

Just put the question to yourself as a good Christian human being, or maybe just a good human being. Is this guy someone you would trust enough to have as a friend?

I can understand why you might want this guy to think you are his friend. He carries a big stick after all. But wouldn’t you always feel a little bit uneasy in his presence. Isn’t it possible he could make a mistake about you, and send you to prison or take away your food and medicine? Wouldn’t you feel it’s better to play along, so you maybe don’t get ripped away from your family too?

“With friends like that, who needs enemies” goes the old saying. But realizing that some so-called friend doesn’t really like who you are and could send you to Alligator Alcatraz if you cross them might not pan out in the long run. True friends are forgiving and loyal, false friends will dance on your grave.

And while I shouldn’t presume to know how Jesus would react, I bet it would be with more charity and compassion than this hypothetical guy I’ve been describing. I’m not a Christian, by the way, so I make no claim to understanding the mind of Jesus. But I’ve got to think that He would say this guy wasn’t the best example of His father’s work. And we know from the old part of the Good Book that His father is not so forgiving.

So let me take this little essay home to us in Jefferson County West Virginia. Maybe thanks to our out-of-the-way spot on earth, we’ve been spared (so far) from the bad doings of my hypothetical bad actor. We do have, nevertheless, people who represent us in government who believe in these kinds of bad actors and actively support them. Maybe they’re just worried about walking a safe line and they’re not really as hostile to Jesus’s teachings as that makes them look. Okay, but let’s play it safe and let’s replace them as our representatives. Vote Blue, in other words!

Jim Bauman