The "What Would Jesus Do" statements and thought pattern

These days I've seen people wearing the WWJD type T-shirts and other things which stands for "What Would Jesus Do" and they say it solves most problems.

I get it. I truly do. I am not particularly religious but I too appreciate the teachings and moral values that can be found in things like the Sermon on the Mount. I too like helping people.

Yet I also don't know that I've ever been able to perform what would be constituted as a miracle in my life. I also do not plan my life around my ability to potentially perform miracles in the future. It is unlikely, so it is not how I plan my life.

Why does this matter?

Well let's take the "What Would Jesus Do" approach and apply it to immigration. Would Jesus turn anyone away? Not likely. If Jesus saw someone who came here with our without legal consent that was starving would he try to feed them? Most likely yes.

This is where we get down to the nitty gritty differences between You, Jesus, and Myself.

We have finite space, we have finite food, and we have people who already live here that struggle. Unlike Jesus I cannot take water and turn it into wine. Unlike Jesus I cannot take a fish and turn it into many fish. I cannot take a loaf of bread and turn it into many loaves of bread.

Thus, some of the things Jesus would do... we cannot do. So there are some activities especially those related to socialism, immigration, etc that the What Would Jesus Do is not particularly realistic. It should be more What Would Jesus Do If He Couldn't Solve a Problem Through Use of a Miracle. Yes, I know that is not as catchy. It is however, realistic.

The way I described the situation to my family is that I like to help people, yet I've begun to view my life as traveling on a boat. I can help people by pulling them onto the boat. Yet a boat only has so much buoyancy so eventually the boat will sink if I keep pulling people onto it. The point is that reality requires we pay attention and sometimes we have to say NO even when it is something we'd really like to do purely for the sake of survival.

How much a person can lose before they consider themselves in "poverty" is a very subjective thing. I too have experienced this. In the United States there was one year many years ago where my wife, my four kids living with us, and myself survived on $19,000. To put that into perspective. That is around $365 per week, or $61 per person per week. That had to cover food, clothing, traveling expenses, and any other need. Again this is in the United States. A single trip to a fast food restaurant can cost an individual more than $5 for a meal and easily more than $10 per day if that is all they eat.

Needless to say you find other ways to survive. We did not eat out at restaurants generally we got very smart at shopping for food and extending food. We did not eat luxurious things and we almost always used generic varieties of food.

We managed to get by.

During that time I worked with a guy who came from what I considered a wealthy family. His car payment and insurance were likely about what my family and I lived on each month.

At one point I heard him whining about how broke he was. You know what? Subjectively to him he was. He had those same gut feelings that my family and I have when we struggle. Sure as far as my family was concerned he was a fool who had no clue how far he could fall. We would have sold his car, bought a much less expensive one, and lived nicely for some time.

Yet that feeling people have when they think they have hit "poverty" is based around what goes on in their mind. They feel the same as someone who has much less than them feels when they struggle. Our minds become conditioned to what we expect to be a normal life, what we expect to be extravagant when we can splurge, and generally when we cannot even meet what we consider normal that is when we'll claim to be broke or struggling.

If it goes on long enough we adjust, learn new techniques as my family and I did and we extend what we can do with money. We eliminate things we truly don't need. We find free or other methods of entertainment, etc.

People can usually go further and further. What each of us considers "poor", or "broke" is a very subjective thing based upon our own lives. Sadly we would benefit if more of us understood what methods other people have learned to survive.

As far as "What would Jesus Do" I believe we also subjectively interpret that based upon our personal experiences.

I would like to consider myself a realist. I believe it is better to teach a person to fish than to simply give them fish. I also believe that if a system cannot bear additional people that no matter how I may feel about saying NO to someone that it is still NO that must be responsibly stated.

I also do not feel I have the right to steal from any of my fellow citizens simply so I feel better and can do more "what would Jesus do" type of things, because that is in fact what has to be done.

These things do not happen for free. They require resources and funds. People will also typically endorse having the government do it, which I am not a fan of. I actually think having the government do it is not something Jesus would do.

The government does not work on voluntary action. It exists based upon force. It can forcefully acquire the funds you need for your desires so you don't feel guilty about saying no by taking those funds from other people.

So if you say "The government needs to do X, or should start program Y" you are not doing what Jesus would do. You are backing someone that is going to use force to make X and Y happen. That is not what Jesus would do. Jesus would do something more akin to crowd sourcing which is voluntary and doesn't require government action.

Immigration needs to be checked, and responsibly managed so you don't sink the boat that all of us live on. It also needs to be checked so you are not stealing from other people in order to not feel guilty about being able to permit more people to illegally jump onto your boat.

I endorse compassion, morality, charity, and helping of people. Yet those things must all be tempered with reason and a rational mind. They cannot and should not be done just so you and I feel good. We need to think about the future too, not just about our momentary gratification and opportunities to virtue signal.