Hmmm...
Seems to me that Jesus was born into a war-torn and forcibly occupied land - sort of like Iraq, Palestine (though it's not a country yet), Afghanistan, Liberia, etc etc. Isreal had been undergoing civil unrest since the military conquest of the land by the Greeks right up until the Maccabees, and then went to war when the Romans arrived. Having been under various foreign dictators for a good long time, it has been estimated that at the time of Jesus birth a good 20% of capable men had been killed by foreign occupiers in one way or another (via out-and-out war, uprisings, civil disobedience, etc)
Then there were the ones who continued to want to overthrow the Romans, the Zealots. Jesus had at least one (two I think) of this political persuasion in his closest knit group, but yet he
consistantly avoided proclaiming for or against the Romans. Instead he stressed the need for internal spiritual renewal, which could only be brought about by (i) repentance from sin, (2) acceptance of himself, and (3) worship of God.
So what would Jesus do? He'd likely move to a smaller outlying town outside of Baghdad and proclaim that,
regardless of the circumstances, every member of humankind is duty bound to turn back to God. Would he pretend to like Sadam? No, I doubt this, because Jesus mocked the political leaders of his time. Would he encourage revolt? I think he wouldn't, because another rebellion - the one in people's hearts - was more important to him.
Now that's what I think Jesus would do. Does that mean that no followers of Jesus should ever enter politics or pursue positions of power? I personally don't think that Jesus would have a problem with people choosing one of these "lesser careers" vs. what he and his cousin did (essentially evangelism). There is at least one example of a Roman centurian coming to Jesus for help, and Jesus helped him. At no point did Jesus tell him to leave the army though...
Well, that's my biblical scholarship for the day
Take it for what it's worth, I'm a microbiologist, not a priest.
Edit: OOOPS. I was a little behind and reading on page two, then decided to post a reply. I didn't realize that the discussion had moved on from WWJD and back to the evil that is Bush. Sorry if my "out of the blue" response confused anyone.
Edit2: and Askan, I'm sorry about your alergic reaction to anything g*d related. You really should see a specialist about that
[ April 16, 2003, 17:18: Message edited by: jimbob ]