You may have heard of “WWJD”. Which is an acronym for “What
Would Jesus Do?” This interesting kind-of Christmas essay from John W.
Whitehead might create a new acronym: How Would You Support Jesus in a
Police State? (Perhaps HWYSJPS?)
The baby Jesus grew up in a no-tech yet harsh Roman police
state. Whitehead speculates on the challenges Jesus would face in a high-tech
police state. The overregulated police state that America has evolved toward,
especially under the guise of America’s Leftist control. (But Whitehead
takes a few stabs at issues Conservatives might be supportive of as well.)
JRH 12/19/16
****************
The Radical Jesus: How Would the Baby in a Manger Fare in
the American Police State?
By John W. Whitehead
Sent December 19, 2016 8:03 AM
“Jesus is too much for us. The
church’s later treatment of the gospels is one long effort to rescue Jesus from
‘extremism.’”—author Gary Wills, What Jesus Meant
Jesus was good. He was caring. He had powerful, profound
things to say—things that would change how we view people, alter government
policies and change the world. He went around helping the poor. And when
confronted by those in authority, he did not shy away from speaking truth to
power.
Jesus was born into a police state not unlike the growing
menace of the American police state.
But what if Jesus, the revered preacher, teacher, radical
and prophet, had been born 2,000 years later? How would Jesus’ life have been
different had he be born and raised in the American police state?
Consider the following if you will.
The Christmas narrative of a baby born in a manger is a
familiar one.
The Roman Empire, a police state in its own right, had
ordered that a census be conducted. Joseph and his pregnant wife Mary traveled
to the little town of Bethlehem so that they could be counted. There being no
room for the couple at any of the inns, they stayed in a stable, where Mary
gave birth to a baby boy. That boy, Jesus, would grow up to undermine the
political and religious establishment of his day and was eventually crucified
as a warning to others not to challenge the powers-that-be.
However, had Jesus been born in the year 2016…
Rather than traveling to Bethlehem for a census, Jesus’
parents would have been mailed a 28-page American Community Survey, a mandatory government questionnaire documenting
their habits, household inhabitants, work schedule, how many toilets are in
your home, etc. The penalty for not responding to
this invasive survey can go as high as $5,000.
Instead of being born in a manger, Jesus might have been
born at home. Rather than wise men and shepherds bringing gifts, however, the
baby’s parents might have been forced to ward off visits from state social workers intent on prosecuting them
for the home birth. One couple in Washington had all three of their
children removed after social services objected to the two youngest being
birthed in an unassisted home delivery.
Had Jesus been born in a hospital, his blood and DNA would have been taken without
his parents’ knowledge or consent and entered into a
government biobank. While most states require newborn screening, a growing
number are holding onto that genetic material
long-term for research, analysis and purposes yet to be
disclosed.
Then again, had his parents been undocumented immigrants,
they and the newborn baby might have been shuffled to a profit-driven, private prison for illegals where
they would have been turned into cheap, forced laborers for corporations such
as Starbucks, Microsoft, Walmart, and Victoria’s Secret. There’s quite a lot of money to be made from imprisoning
immigrants, especially when taxpayers are footing the bill.
From the time he was old enough to attend school, Jesus
would have been drilled in lessons of compliance and obedience to government
authorities, while learning little about his own rights. Had he been daring
enough to speak out against injustice while still in school, he might have
found himself tasered or beaten by a school resource officer, or at the very
least suspended under a school zero tolerance policy that
punishes minor infractions as harshly as more serious offenses.
Had Jesus disappeared for a few hours let alone days as a
12-year-old, his parents would have been handcuffed, arrested and jailed for
parental negligence. Parents across the country have been arrested
for far less “offenses” such as allowing their children to walk to the park
unaccompanied and play in their front yard alone.
Rather than disappearing from the history books from his
early teenaged years to adulthood, Jesus’ movements and personal data—including
his biometrics—would have been documented, tracked, monitored and filed by
governmental agencies and corporations such as Google and Microsoft.
Incredibly, 95 percent of school districts share their
student records with outside companies that are contracted to
manage data, which they then use to market products to us.
From the moment Jesus made contact with an “extremist” such
as John the Baptist, he would have been flagged for surveillance because of his
association with a prominent activist, peaceful or otherwise. Since 9/11, the FBI has actively carried out surveillance
and intelligence-gathering operations on a broad range of activist groups,
from animal rights groups to poverty relief, anti-war groups and other such
“extremist” organizations.
Jesus’ anti-government views would certainly have resulted
in him being labeled a domestic extremist. Law enforcement agencies are being
trained to recognize signs of anti-government extremism during interactions
with potential extremists who share a “belief in the approaching collapse of
government and the economy.”
While traveling from community to community, Jesus might
have been reported to government officials as “suspicious” under the Department
of Homeland Security’s “See Something, Say Something” programs. Many states,
including New York, are providing individuals with phone apps that allow them to take photos
of suspicious activity and report them to their state
Intelligence Center, where they are reviewed and forwarded to law-enforcement
agencies.
Rather than being permitted to live as an itinerant
preacher, Jesus might have found himself threatened with arrest for daring to
live off the grid or sleeping outside. In fact, the number of cities that have
resorted to criminalizing homelessness by enacting bans
on camping, sleeping in vehicles, loitering and begging in public has
doubled.
Viewed by the government as a dissident and potential threat
to its power, Jesus might have had government spies planted among his followers
to monitor his activities, report on his movements, and entrap him into breaking the law.
Such Judases today—called informants—often receive hefty paychecks from the
government for their treachery.
Had Jesus used the internet to spread his radical message of
peace and love, he might have found his blog posts infiltrated by government spies attempting
to undermine his integrity, discredit him or plant incriminating information
online about him. At the very least, he would have had his website hacked and
his email monitored.
Had Jesus attempted to feed large crowds of people, he would
have been threatened with arrest for violating various ordinances prohibiting
the distribution of food without a permit. Florida officials arrested a 90-year-old man for feeding the
homeless on a public beach.
Had Jesus spoken publicly about his 40 days in the desert
and his conversations with the devil, he might have been labeled mentally ill
and detained in a psych ward against his will for a mandatory involuntary
psychiatric hold with no access to family or friends. One Virginia man was
arrested, strip searched, handcuffed to a table, diagnosed as having “mental
health issues,” and locked up for five days in a mental health
facility against his will apparently because of his slurred
speech and unsteady gait.
Without a doubt, had Jesus attempted to overturn tables in a
Jewish temple and rage against the materialism of religious institutions, he
would have been charged with a hate crime. Currently, 45 states and the federal government have
hate crime laws on the books.
Rather than having armed guards capture Jesus in a public
place, government officials would have ordered that a SWAT team carry out a
raid on Jesus and his followers, complete with flash-bang grenades and military
equipment. There are upwards of 80,000 such SWAT team raids
carried out every year, many on unsuspecting Americans who have no
defense against such government invaders, even when such raids are done in
error.
Instead of being detained by Roman guards, Jesus might have
been made to “disappear” into a secret government detention center where he
would have been interrogated, tortured and subjected to all manner of abuses. Chicago police “disappeared” more than
7,000 people into a secret, off-the-books interrogation
warehouse at Homan Square.
Charged with treason and labeled a domestic terrorist, Jesus
might have been sentenced to a life-term in a private prison where he would
have been forced to provide slave labor for
corporations or put to death by way of the electric chair or a lethal mixture of drugs.
Either way, whether Jesus had been born in our modern age or
his own, he still would have died at the hands of a police state. Indeed, as I
show in my book Battlefield America: The War on the
American People, what Jesus and other activists suffered in their
day is happening to those who choose to speak truth to power today.
Thus, we are faced with a choice: remain silent in the face
of evil or speak out against it. As Nobel Prize-winning author Albert Camus
proclaimed:
Perhaps we cannot prevent this
world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the
number of tortured children. And if you don’t help us, who else in the world
can help us do this?
WC: 1495
___________________
ABOUT JOHN WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and
president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The
War on the American People (SelectBooks, 2015) is
available online at www.amazon.com. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Click here to read more of John
Whitehead's commentaries.
Copyright © 2016 The Rutherford Institute, All rights reserved.
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