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January 6, 2009 | 4:59 pm

Christian tries not just acting like Jesus but living like him too

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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I’m surprised this shtick actually worked again.

Forget WWJD. A former pastor read A.J. Jacobs’ “The Year of Living Biblically” and decided he wanted to take to hear HWJL—how would Jesus live.

Ed Dobson, the vice president of spiritual formation at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Mich.,—you know Cornerstone, it’s like the Princeton of the Midwest—didn’t shave, ate kosher and kept the Sabbath for an entire year. He also read through the Gospels every week, though this obviously wasn’t something Jesus did:

“I would often go down to the bar, sit up at the counter, drink a beer and talk about God, which Jesus was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard,” he said.

The most difficult part of the challenge, Dobson said, was obeying Jesus’ teachings, particularly the idea of blessing the people who persecute you.

“My youngest son did two tours in Iraq, and on the last tour, a friend of his was killed in action and my wife and I went for the visitation and I was overwhelmed with grief and also with anger for the people who had made the roadside bomb, planted it and detonated it,” he said. “And then I finally realized I had to pray for them and bless them, which is very, very hard to do.”

Dobson even voted in the presidential race as he thought Jesus would. Dobson pulled the lever for Barack Obama, saying it was the first time he ever voted for a Democrat.

“I decided since I had read through the gospels at that point over 30 times, I wanted to know who best represented the fundamental teachings of Jesus, and I felt that he more than any other candidate represented the teachings of Jesus, so I voted for him,” Dobson said.

Dobson’s message to others heading into the new year is to start reading the Bible, which he acknowledged can be demanding.

“I would encourage people, whether you’ve ever read the Bible or not, begin reading the Bible, and just listen to what God has to say.”

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Hmmmm, “... didn’t shave, ate kosher and kept the Sabbath… The most difficult part of the challenge, Dobson said, was obeying Jesus’ teachings…”.

A Cornerstone of Christian ideology is the impossibility of observing the Law of Moses (Toras Moshe) to transcend the consequences of sin in the post-Edenic world. did the early Christians jump from the frying pan into the Lake of Eternal Fire? “Walk across my swimming pool, Dobson”.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 1/07/09 at 1:20 am

I hope he gets to the part where he learns about grace, as opposed to works-righteousness.

Comment by John on 1/07/09 at 2:28 am

I think he has gotten mostly as far as he is going to go, bearing in mind that he is a work in progress and all that like all of us. My somewhat indirect point is that although any individual Jew may seek to be a very holy person, a mystic, a prophetically sensitive individual, a sage, a saint etc., the lowest common denominator does not require that. Simply acting properly and sincerely committed to God’s stated Will, with courage and discipline, inevitably leads to a clean, dignified, happy and moral life and society that provide a solid foundation both for basic safe living and for those who strive for more.

Christians do not seem to have that option, which is what makes that religion so difficult. What people don’t realize is that Torah Law is a study aid; a cheat sheet into God’s Will that actually makes that state of grace easier to attain. Dobson had the right idea in understanding that he could not even begin to comprehend where Jesus was coming from without trying to live there himself. What he could not know is that an important element of Jewish life is the study of the Oral Law which serves to bring us into the mental and intellectual mindset of the ancients, even in the absence of a physical base. However that is the task that is daunting, not merely the kosher food etc.

Comment by Ben Plonie on 1/07/09 at 7:16 am

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