"You're in a Blimpie's buying a roast beef sandwich for a hungry homeless man waiting outside, but when the cashier rings you up, you're short 50 cents. For $200-- What Would Jesus Do?"
BZZZ!
"Yes, Luke?"
"Make up the difference from the take-a-penny, leave-a-penny cup?"
"No, that's not it! Mary?"
"Ask if I can take the cheese off to reduce the price?"
"No! Peter?"
"Point out to the cashier that he has a home, a job, and plenty to eat, and shame him into letting it slide?"
DING DING DING!
"That's correct! Off with those shoes, Peter, you're going to the Crucifixion Round!"-- ejs, May 26 2001 Oh, man. ejs will never win this game. How wrong can one post be about the ethics of Christ? Oh, Lord!-- globaltourniquet, May 26 2001 By way of explanation:
The only people Jesus ever shamed were religious hypocrites. A young clerk just trying to do his job would never receive the shame you speak of from Jesus. In the given situation, the correct answer would be, pray to the Father to provide, both for the homeless man and the clerk behind the counter, to bless their good intentions and forgive their sins, and then multiply the money so it covers the cost.-- globaltourniquet, May 26 2001 Croissy. I'll recant if you can name one way the world is better off due the presence of Christianity.-- reensure, May 26 2001 Easy, [reensure]. In fact, I'll give you ten, some large some small. (By way of disclaimer, I should say I'm a nonbeliever myself, but it's obvious to me that Christian faith is a mighty motivator for many of the western world's best citizens. From the list, I'm also obviously a musician.)
1) The Bible, which, if nothing else, is the greatest source of allusions in western literature.
2) Most of J. S. Bach's best work.
3) Gothic cathedrals, particularly Chartres.
3) Messaien
4) The Life of Brian
5) G. F. Handel: Messiah
6) The Gregorian Calendar
7) Palestrina
8) American Friends Service Committee
9) Society of Jesus
10) Change-ringing-- td, May 26 2001 [Please take the religious debate about pros and cons of Christianity itself offline. Thank you.]
This would be Rod and Todd's favorite show!-- jutta, May 26 2001 Given that so many people (even in this well-informed subset of the world) seem to have positive yet conflicting notions of God's opinions, who would judge this? ps [td] Thanks for your no.10, I do my bit.-- angel, May 26 2001 I voted for this idea. I'm not sure whether ejs intends it as Christian-critical satire or not. If the intent is satirical, I've seen better approaches, but this one is not without some merit as long as you evaluate it as satire. But the reason I voted for it is that even if it is intended as satire, I also think that this format, run more seriously, could be an excellent way to encourage discussion of ethical issues among a willing group of people (ideally a Bible study class, but not necessarily). The problem of judging right or wrong answers could at least be addressed, though not overcome, by requiring participants to support their answer with scripture.-- beauxeault, May 26 2001 That's a good way of looking at it, beauxeault... taking the acronym and putting some concrete thinking behind it would make it have a bit more meaning and effect than simply embroidering it on a bracelet does.
[td: good list; number 3 (the first one) gets my vote, and who (believer or unbeliever) could argue with number 4? :) ]-- PotatoStew, May 26 2001 I know this is an old one, but it's needed now more than ever.
For example, would Jesus say "Merry Christmas"?-- sophocles, Dec 20 2005 Nope. I doubt that, at the time, there would've been a public holiday honouring His birth.
But then again, if he were here, now (in disguise, of course), what would he make of the whole 'Seasons Greetings'/'Merry Christmas' shenanigan?
'Every time you say 'Happy Holidays', an angel gets AIDS' - Jon Stewart, TV comedian.-- froglet, Dec 20 2005 [froglet] you understood my point then. I'm pretty sure, given how he reached out to gentiles so much, that he wouldn't have said to them "happy hannuka, arab, and if you don't say it back I'll yell at you!". Peace to you all this season, and every other day too.-- sophocles, Dec 20 2005 random, halfbakery