(Originally published in Greater Democracy)

I started college as a Religion major with thoughts of becoming a priest, and fairly conservative religious viewpoints. One of the things I particularly remember from the early days of my religious education is that most Christians tend to view Jesus as an embodiment of their own ideals. Conservatives see Jesus as conservative, black radicals tend to see Jesus as black radicals, etc.

As we apply it to our dealings with others and with politics we enter the realm of discernment. The popular question, “What would Jesus do?” is a foray into this. Jock Gill’s posting of the Sermon on the Mount furthers the question.

I spoke with Jock a little bit about this, and remembered one of the first lessons in discernment. Some Christians are led astray by false prophets quoting scripture. When
Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert, Satan quoted scripture as part of his temptation of Jesus. We need to be careful about false prophets or wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Instead, we are encouraged to look at ‘the fruits of the spirit, love, kindness, gentleness and self-control’. These are not what I’ve been seeing from the speakers at the convention this week, nor in their deeds over the past few years.

Discernment is an important gift and I pray that Christians and everyone seeks discernment of who is really walking the walk and not just talking the talk.