Throughout our lives we have all heard the phrase what would Jesus do? A hypothetical question that of course makes us rethink bad decisions. Yet today I am beginning to hear that phrase in the media, last I heard it Bill O’Rielly was trying to say that Jesus would work within Sharia law. Now I do not know how a person goes on a television show and presumes to speak for Jesus but Mr. O’Rielly did just that and to make things worse he attempted to say Jesus would obey Sharia law. Now I have no idea of whether Jesus would object to Sharia treatment or not but the point is neither does anybody else. We can extrapolate what we believe to be true but that is not the same and in fact one could create valid arguments for and against most things, mostly because historically what we know of Jesus’ thoughts can be vague at best.
Now I am not saying it is not a good rule to have, in fact thinking before acting in this manner or any other is usually a good idea but I find it interesting when someone presumes to know what someone else would do, particularly someone who has been dead for thousands of years. In fact isn’t the extremist Muslim doing the same thing, believing they know what the prophet wants them to do and believing their actions are protected by Allah because they know some secret truth the rest of us do not know. In truth those that play this card are being a little arrogant I would say. First they must assume that God would above all choose them for such ability and then when they act outside the guidelines of mans law they claim that Gods law is different and they are special and therefore OK.
Now again I am not saying the Mr. O’Rielly has a God complex, in fact most of the time I believe Mr. O’Rielly is correct but in this case I think it would have been better to address Sharia law within the guidelines of the laws of the country it resides in. In this case the USA, and here in the USA Sharia law is all but impossible to implement, not because I feel it is evil and I do but because it cannot exist naturally within our current system which recognizes personal liberties such as freedom of speech and religion.
Oh I would also wonder with Jesus saying turn the other cheek if he would condone the brutality that Sharia law brings against those that do not believe in the same God. He turned over the money lenders table because he believed the Jews were blaspheming, I wonder if he would feel the same about cutting off the hand of a poor hungry person for stealing enough to eat? I wonder if Jesus would find any grace in the condemnation of any belief on belief alone, that is to say would he find it OK to starve and kill those that do not believe the same way, it seems to me he stood very much against that type of act. He did say give onto Ceaser what is Ceasers but he was talking about tax money and telling people to stop being greedy and bringing their version of the law down on them which prevents them from worshipping properly within their own guidelines, Jesus did not seem to condone violence in any fashion and I believe he would stand firmly against Sharia law for that reason but it is just a notion of my own, Jesus has not told me any singular truths that only I know, so until then like most of us I will keep searching for the truth and allow others to do the same.