Jobs for Jesus

In a recent opinion in the KW Record about the ethics of torture I came across this thought provoking quote. In my response, I am using a pseudo debating technique known as "Reductio ad Absurdum" only to make the point that I actually think this is absurd.

"Gary Bauer, a former Republican presidential candidate affiliated with several Christian right groups over the years, said the discussion should not come down to "Would Jesus torture?''

"There are a lot of things Jesus wouldn't do because he's the son of God,'' he said. "I can't imagine Jesus being a marine or a policeman or a bank president, for that matter. The more appropriate question is, 'What is a follower of Jesus permitted to do?"'

This is an excellent question. Obviously my previous posts have had no effect on the Evangelical Christians support for torture and for starting wars. So I must have missed some important debating point which fundamentalists are clinging to as justification for supporting war crimes. [yes, waterboarding is a war crime, as the U.S. has executed foreign soldiers for doing it.]

According to Gary, Jesus, as "Son of God" would not be a marine and obviously we need these people in a functioning society, don't we? (as long as there is no compulsory military service, where Jesus would probably move to Canada.)

And obviously also from Gary Bauer's point of view, we need torturers, too, which he forgot to mention I guess. Before continuing with my point, can I think of any other jobs our civilization needs that Jesus would not do? Day trader, Chemical industry CEO, telemarketer, Fox news commentator, right wing radio show host, MacLean's magazine writer, T.V. evangelist selling "miracles", any job at a cigarette company, armaments company or soft drink company, barman, postal worker, male nurse, professional hockey player, and NHL Commissioner.

Wow, quite a list of jobs that Jesus is not going to be sending in his resume for. What could he apply for? He could be a carpenter I guess, if he's not bored with that already. Or a tattoo artist. That's about it.

So according to Gary Bauer, the more appropriate question would be "what is a follower of Jesus allowed to do, that Jesus would not do himself because He is the "Son of God"?

Assuming Jesus has his reasons for staying out of the Marines, what can a devout Christian "Follower of Jesus" do assuming he or she has no other job options other than the Military? (first of all I think the expression "Follower of Jesus", when Jesus Himself would no go there, is a misnomer. Maybe we should call them "Praisers of Jesus" instead of "Followers".)

So what would this Praiser of Jesus be allowed to do. Other than praising Jesus at every opportunity, when not busy actually killing Moslems? One thing that comes to mind is converting Moslems to Christianity. Also permitted is handing out candies to kids in the street. I think Jesus might like to see no shooting of innocent civilians, too, but there's a problem. They all look the same. So maybe Jesus could stick to His job of "Sorting them out" after they have been killed, and sending the good Moslems to Heaven and the bad ones to hell. Oh wait, I forgot. All Moslems go to hell. I guess that makes the job of sorting them out a lot easier.