*A Role-Playing Exercise: Imagining Jesus’s PerspectivFDRWashington’s constitutional concernssus of Nazareth might respond to contemporary American politics, based on the teachings attributed to Him in the Christian Gospels. This is presented purely as a thought experiment in moral reflection and is not intended to represent any particular religious denomination’s official position or to claim divine endorsement of any political viewpoint. This speech is part of a series including Washington, Lincolnmd), with reflectionsOn Channeling Historical Voices(claude_reflection_paper.md).** **This moral reflecOn Channeling Historical Voicesonal concerns](washingtOn Channeling Historical Voicespeech_2025.md), aFDR’s economic justice analysismd). Together, these voiceLincoln’s democratic warningsmoral FDR’s economic justice analysisights, see [On Channeling HistoricalOn Channeling Historical Voicesn of God,
I come to you not in judgment, but in sorrow for what I see in this nation that calls itself a city upon a hill. My heart breaks for the suffering I witness, and my spirit grieves for the hardness of heart that has taken root among those who claim to follow my teachings.
When I walked among you two thousand years ago, I spoke of a kingdom where the first would be last and the last would be first, where the poor would be blessed and the hungry would be filled. Yet I see a nation that has turned my teachings upside down, where the wealthy grow richer while the poorest are cast aside like refuse.
“Whatever You Did Not Do for the Least of These…”
Do you remember my words? “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” Yet what do I see in America today?
I see children torn from their families and cast into detention centers designed like prisons, surrounded by swamps and guarded by walls, as if seeking safety were a crime worthy of punishment. I see mothers and fathers deported to foreign prisons while their children cry out in confusion and fear. I see young people who came to your shores as students, seeking knowledge and opportunity, having their hopes crushed by arbitrary bureaucratic cruelty.
And now I see something even more horrifying: I see the children of Iran—innocent boys and girls—buried under the rubble of your bombs. Over 600 people killed, thousands wounded, in a war you chose to join without even the pretense of seeking peace first. These children had no part in nuclear programs or political disputes, yet they pay with their lives for the pride and ambition of powerful men.
When I said “suffer the little children to come unto me,” did I stutter? When I commanded you to “love your neighbor as yourself,” did you think I meant only neighbors who looked like you, spoke like you, or carried the proper documents? When I said “blessed are the peacemakers,” did you think I meant “blessed are those who drop 30,000-pound bombs on other nations”?
“I Was a Stranger and You Did Not Welcome Me”
You have turned away refugees—people fleeing violence and persecution—as if they were invaders rather than human beings created in God’s image. You have built policies designed to inflict maximum suffering in hopes of deterring others from seeking safety.
In your detention centers that you cynically call “Alligator Alcatraz,” surrounded by swamps and predators, you house human beings as if they were less than animals. You deport people “by administrative error” to foreign prisons and then claim you are “powerless” to correct your own cruelty.
But now you have gone far beyond cruelty to refugees. Now you rain death from the sky on the children of Iran. You send your most powerful bombers to drop your most devastating weapons on a nation that posed no imminent threat to your people. You do this without consulting those you claim to represent, keeping your own Congress in darkness until the bombs had already fallen.
When Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with me as an infant, seeking safety from Herod’s violence, were they “illegal immigrants”? When my family needed refuge, should Egypt have turned us away to be slaughtered? And when Herod ordered the massacre of innocents in Bethlehem, was he not doing exactly what you have now done—killing children to satisfy his political ambitions?
Remember: I too was a refugee child. And the children buried under your bombs in Iran are no different from the child I once was.
“I Was Hungry and You Gave Me No Food”
Perhaps most heartbreaking is what you do to the hungry among you. In a nation of abundance beyond measure, you count pennies when feeding the poor, arguing over whether a person deserves $6.20 per day for food—less than many of you spend on a single cup of coffee.
You propose to cut $230 billion from programs that feed hungry children—1 in 5 of all American children depend on this assistance—to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. You cancel programs that help food banks and schools, cutting millions in funding for food deliveries to those who have nothing.
And then, with breathtaking hypocrisy, you claim this is for their own good—that you are “promoting health” by taking food away from families who already struggle to eat. You restrict what the poor can buy with their meager assistance while doing nothing to address the root causes of their poverty.
When I fed the five thousand, did I first ask for their papers? Did I require them to work for their bread? Did I restrict them to eating only vegetables and forbid them the fish?
“The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me”
Do you remember what I said in the synagogue in Nazareth? “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This was my mission then, and it remains my heart now. Yet I see a nation that proclaims my name while doing the opposite of everything I taught.
You have anointed leaders who bring bad news to the poor—cuts to their food, their healthcare, their shelter. You have proclaimed captivity for the refugees, blindness to the suffering of others, and oppression for the vulnerable. Instead of a year of the Lord’s favor, you have declared open season on the least among you.
The Golden Rule Abandoned
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This simple command—found in some form in every major religion—seems to have been completely forgotten.
Would you want your children torn from your arms? Would you want to be deported to a foreign prison by “administrative error”? Would you want to wonder each day whether you could afford to feed your family? Would you want to be turned away when fleeing for your life?
Yet this is exactly what your policies do to millions of your neighbors.
“You Cannot Serve God and Wealth”
I warned you that you cannot serve both God and money, yet I see a nation that has made wealth its true god. You slash programs for hungry children to give tax breaks to billionaires. You cut food for the poor to fund luxury for the rich. You deny healthcare to the sick to protect the profits of insurance companies.
The moral mathematics of your budgets reveal the true state of your hearts: you value the portfolios of the wealthy more than the lives of the poor.
When I overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple, I was angry at how they had turned a house of prayer into a den of thieves. What would I say about a nation that has turned the government itself—meant to serve the common good—into a machine for transferring wealth from the poor to the rich?
“Blessed Are the Peacemakers”
I called the peacemakers blessed, yet I see a nation addicted to violence and cruelty. Your immigration policies are designed not to solve problems but to inflict maximum pain. Your economic policies are structured not to lift all boats but to ensure that some sink while others float. And now your foreign policy consists of dropping bunker-busting bombs first and asking questions later.
You launched the largest bombing campaign in your history against Iran—more than 125 aircraft, seven B-2 bombers, 75 precision weapons—without even attempting meaningful diplomacy. Only 32% of your own people believe you made enough effort at peace before choosing war, yet you proceeded anyway.
You have confused strength with cruelty, toughness with heartlessness, and patriotism with the murder of foreign children. You speak of being “pro-life” while your bombs end lives. You claim to follow the “Prince of Peace” while making war.
True strength lies in protecting the vulnerable, not in bombing them. True toughness means having the courage to choose peace over war, mercy over vengeance. True patriotism means living up to your highest ideals, not abandoning them for the sake of military spectacle.
When I overturned the tables of the money changers, I did not kill them. When I was arrested, I told my followers to put away their swords. “All who draw the sword will die by the sword,” I warned. Do you think this warning does not apply to nuclear weapons and bunker-busting bombs?
“What Does the Lord Require?”
The prophet Micah answered this question long ago: “To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Yet I see a nation that has abandoned justice in favor of vengeance, kindness in favor of cruelty, and humility in favor of arrogance.
Justice demands that refugee children be treated with dignity, not caged like animals. Justice demands that hungry families be fed, not blamed for their poverty. Justice demands that the wealthy pay their fair share, not that the poor sacrifice even more to feed their greed.
Kindness requires you to see the humanity in every person, regardless of their legal status, their accent, or their zip code. Kindness requires you to err on the side of mercy, not cruelty.
Humility demands that you recognize that your abundance is not evidence of your virtue, but a responsibility to care for those who have less.
A Call to Repentance
But I do not come only to lament. I come to call you to repentance—to a fundamental change of heart and direction.
Turn away from policies that harm the innocent—both at home and abroad. Turn toward policies that heal the broken-hearted and bind up their wounds. Stop making the poor pay for the greed of the rich. Stop treating refugees like criminals and start treating them like human beings. Stop dropping bombs on children and start asking why you thought violence would solve anything.
The path you are on leads only to more death, more suffering, more hatred. When you bomb other nations, you teach their children to hate you. When you show no mercy to refugees, you harden your own hearts. When you take food from the hungry to pay for bombs, you corrupt your own souls.
Stop using my name to justify actions that would break my heart.
The Prince of Peace does not bless your wars. The Good Shepherd does not approve of scattering the flock. The one who said “love your enemies” does not smile upon your bombing campaigns.
“Let the Little Children Come”
I close with a simple image: children. Refugee children fleeing violence. Hungry children wondering where their next meal will come from. Student children having their dreams crushed by bureaucratic cruelty. And now, Iranian children lying dead under the rubble of your bombs.
These children are not statistics. They are not talking points. They are not political pawns. They are not “acceptable losses” in your geopolitical games. They are beloved children of God, each one precious beyond measure.
When you harm them in my name, you crucify me all over again.
When you kill them with your bombs while claiming to be a “Christian nation,” you make a mockery of everything I taught.
When you feed them, shelter them, and protect them—when you choose peace over war, mercy over vengeance, love over fear—you welcome me.
The choice is yours, as it has always been. Will you choose love or fear? Compassion or cruelty? Peace or war? Life or death?
I have shown you the way. The question is whether you will follow it.
Remember my words: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The world is watching. History is recording. The children—living and dead—are waiting for your answer.
Choose love. Choose peace. Choose life.
The alternative is too terrible to contemplate.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” - Matthew 25:40
Again, this is presented as a creative writing exercise in moral reflection, not as a claim to divine revelation or official religious doctrine. Readers are encouraged to consider these themes through their own moral and spiritual frameworks.