When What Jesus Would Do Clearly Won't

I recently involved myself in a Facebook discussion on the subject of "Happy Holidays" overtaking "Merry Christmas" as a standard yuletide greeting in the United States. The owner of the profile sent us packing just as I thought things were really getting interesting. I could just make out on the horizon the meeting place of minds, after arriving at which the various posters might actually start understanding one another's points. Mine was that you shouldn't allow yourself to be pressured into issuing homogonized compromise salutations, but that you also shouldn't be upset about the greetings you receive from others—especially if they are sincere wishes for your happiness, as the sentiment should trump the wording.

Also, I was angling for some acknowledgment that it wasn't my fault, as at one point I felt things were heading in a blame the filthy atheists direction. The filthy atheists as one pointed the finger at capitalism. See last year's Christmas post.

While banging out a scathing rebuttal of something or another, I struck upon the idea of applying the "What Would Jesus Do?" test to the question of choice of holiday greeting. It seemed to me that, for Jesus, "Merry Christmas" would be a really weird thing to say to people. From him, it seems a tad self-centered, somewhat comparable, perhaps, to people who go around wishing others "Happy My Birthday!"

Clearly, then, there is a point at which what Jesus would do is too personal to do anyone seeking to emulate his behavior any good. For example, if I was in Heaven and met the Virgin Mary, I wouldn't want to look to Jesus for what to do. It might not be good form to say "Hi Mom!" and give her a big hug when it's only the first time we've met.