‘What Would Jesus Do?’

By Letter to the Editor on September 25, 2018.

In church on a recent Sunday our minister left us with the thought “What Would Jesus Do?” So I thought should we apply that to the safe consumption site question and how we approach people who use drugs?

I think we could. Jesus did not agree with the teaching of the times and paid attention to the outcasts of society, the lepers, the unclean woman who touched the hem of his cloak, the taxman, the poor, etc. Jesus came to make the New Covenant with God’s people. His was the new way.

I know that harm reduction is a new way for most people when they are thinking of drugs. A war on drugs is what we are used to. It has not worked. Meeting people where they are at until they are ready to try to give up their addiction meets with success — wraparound supports, connecting to community instead of isolating. When dealing with opiates we are told “don’t start and don’t stop, replacement therapy is needed”; so we need the safe consumption site for people to go to.

However, we have to ask ourselves everyday during this crisis, as we do everyday in life, “What Would Jesus Do?”

Diane MacNaughton

Medicine Hat

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