S.M. Reed holds two Master’s degrees, one in Theology and one in Psychology. She was raised in church and has been involved in different ministry and leadership positions for most of her life. She is presently enrolled in a Master of Divinity degree in order to pursue pastoral work.
The following was originally posted on her blog, “Letters to the Jaded Evangelical”. The blog is geared towards those who have become discouraged by the church’s intermingling with conservative politics and American ideology and who seek a purer faith. There is another way forward – and we’ll find it by focusing on Jesus. You can read more at: Blog | The Jaded Evangelical (webador.com) or on Substack: The Jaded Evangelical | SM Reed | Substack.
What Would Jesus Really Do?
I grew up in the WWJD generation. Even if you didn’t, if you were around in the 90’s, you might recall as this movement was everywhere. WWJD was stamped on T-shirts and pins, slap bracelets and bumper stickers. The booming question of “What would Jesus do?” was asked from pulpits and at youth revivals and even made its way into popular Christian music.
As a teenager, I took those words very seriously. I wanted to do what Jesus would do. I was taught that this was the way of the Christian, to follow in the steps of Jesus Christ. To live as He lived. To love as He loved. To teach what He taught.
Only, oddly, when I genuinely tried to live that out as an adult, the Church turned against me.
I guess WWJD only means don’t have sex and don’t have an abortion and don’t support gay people. Which is weird because Jesus didn’t really talk about those things at all. What He did say was feed the hungry and clothe the naked and welcome the stranger – which I did, by supporting recently arrived asylum-seekers from the border and advocating against Trump’s racist border policies (this was the last time he was president). Instead of encouraging me as I followed Jesus, I was unfriended by my Christian peers, scolded for “helping illegals”, and told to “pray and repent” and fall in line behind Trump.
I have heard it noted from a few different people that many pastors have said whenever they preach on the Beatitudes, afterwards congregants come up and complain, asking when the pastor became so “woke”. When the pastor reminds them the Beatitudes are words Jesus Himself spoke, they shake their heads and say, “Well, that would never work today.”
Apparently, if you do the things Jesus actually said to do, you are “woke” and a “liberal” or a “leftie”.
Apparently, if you follow the words of Jesus when He said to “love your enemies” and “turn the other cheek”, you’re too soft.
Apparently, if you follow the words of Jesus when He said to “love your neighbor as you love yourself”, you’re a socialist. (Bishop Don Helder Camara once said, “When I fed the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why they were poor, they called me a communist.”)
If you actually defend the poor and oppressed as God says to do hundreds of times in the Old Testament, you are accused of “having a victim mentality” (someone said that to me recently) or betraying America’s interests. “We have to help Americans first,” Christians have declared to me (I believe JD Vance made a similar comment recently). I haven’t seen that in the Bible, though.
I don’t recognize the Christianity much of the church is following today. It doesn’t look anything like Jesus (who wasn’t white or American, by the way). It doesn’t look at all Biblical.
For example, Feeding America estimates 1 in 6 children in the United States are at risk for going hungry due to poverty and/or food insecurity. That’s 12.5 million children. What would Jesus do? Would Jesus cut their school lunch programs (sometimes the only food they have all day), judge their parents for being “lazy”, and take away their food stamps?
I have a hard time seeing Him doing that.
Or what about the 650,000 homeless people in the US. What would Jesus do for them? Would Jesus take money away from homeless services, and make housing or helping the homeless illegal (as some laws are trying to do right now)? Would Jesus criminalize homelessness itself?
I can’t see that either.
Or what about our immigrant and refugee communities? What would Jesus do for them? Would Jesus take funds away from these communities, make them feel unwelcome, and blame them for everything that goes wrong? Would Jesus strip away their protections, kick them out of the country, or send them to torture chambers?
No, I’m pretty sure we can say He would not.
People might say reading this, well, but, it isn’t that simple.
Isn’t it, though? Maybe we’ve just made it too complicated.
I can’t feed 12.5 million children, but I can donate a little extra to my kids’ school when I pay for their hot lunches, so that other kids can have some, too. I can advocate for policies which help support low-income families and I can donate to the local food banks. That sounds more like something Jesus would do, doesn’t it?
My home isn’t big enough for 650,000 people. But I can support homeless shelters, I can vote for policies that help prevent homelessness, and I can advocate for safer, more affordable housing in my community. I can even carry food bags or restaurant gift cards in the car that I can hand out to people begging on the street. Maybe I even stop to talk to them, learn their names, speak to them like an actual human being, and pray for them. That sounds more like what Jesus would do, doesn’t it?
I’ve done my fair share of welcoming the stranger, but there are so many ways we can do this. Welcoming our immigrant and refugee neighbors personally, making sure they have what they need to assist with their transition, and getting to know them, is a great place to start. We can also advocate for fairer immigration policies and better treatment of immigrants and refugees. We can support immigrant services and refugee resettlement programs. We can share stories within our circles regarding the immigrants and refugees we know, to help break down myths and lies regarding who they are.
Perhaps the reason why these issues have become so muddied is because we’ve allowed societal ideas about individualism and capitalism to infiltrate our sense of morality. Our morality, though, if we are Christian, should be based on Jesus. And there are some things which are very clear – the intrinsic value of each and every human being, the command to love, and the command to care for the most vulnerable among us. The least of these, as Jesus called them. In Matthew 25, Jesus even seems to link our treatment of others to our eternal destiny. These are not issues to take lightly.
So, what would Jesus do? What would Jesus really do? If we are serious about calling ourselves Christian, we should take this question seriously.
And, I don’t know who first said this, but: If we err, may we err on the side of love.
