Everybody Knew — Part III: What Would Jesus Actually Do Today?

Guest Opinion by Alicia Boothe Haggermaker

Throughout history, societies have invoked the name of Jesus for many purposes.

To justify wars.
To defend institutions.
To protect political tribes.

But rarely do we pause long enough to ask a much more uncomfortable question.

If Jesus actually walked the earth today…

what would he do?

In the first two pieces of this series, we explored a painful reality.

Abuse rarely survives because nobody knows.

More often, it survives because people see warning signs but stay silent.

Communities hesitate.
Institutions protect themselves.
The crowd punishes anyone who speaks too early.

And eventually the same quiet sentence surfaces after the scandal breaks.

“Yeah… we kind of knew.”

If that pattern continues generation after generation, the obvious question becomes this:

What would real moral courage look like?

Many people assume the answer would be polite sermons and calls for unity.

But the historical record tells a very different story.

Jesus was not executed for being agreeable.

He was executed because he disrupted systems that protected power.

When religious leaders turned faith into a hierarchy of control, he confronted them publicly.

When merchants exploited worshippers inside the temple, he overturned their tables.

When powerful men used legal technicalities to condemn a vulnerable woman, he challenged their hypocrisy.

And when children were treated as unimportant in a society built around status and hierarchy, he said something radical for the time.

“Let the little children come to me… for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Protecting the vulnerable was not a secondary concern in his teaching.

It was central.

In fact, one of the harshest warnings recorded in the Gospels addresses those who harm children.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for them to have a millstone hung around their neck and be thrown into the sea.”

Those are not the words of someone primarily concerned with protecting reputations or preserving institutions.

They are the words of someone drawing a line.

Which raises a difficult question for our own time.

If Jesus walked into modern institutions today — schools, churches, corporations, political movements — what would he do?

Would he protect the systems that allowed harm to continue?

Or would he confront them?

History suggests the answer would not be comfortable.

He would likely challenge the same forces we discussed in the previous pieces of this series.

The quiet agreements.

The reputational calculations.

The fear of speaking first.

The crowd that punishes anyone who disrupts the narrative.

Because the moral challenge at the center of the story has never really changed.

Every generation faces the same choice.

Protect comfort…

or confront truth.

Protect reputations…

or protect the vulnerable.

Protect the system…

or protect the child.

The teachings attributed to Jesus repeatedly point toward one idea that modern societies often struggle with.

Moral responsibility cannot be outsourced.

Not to institutions.
Not to crowds.
Not to political tribes.

It belongs to individuals.

Each person must decide whether to follow the crowd or their conscience.

In the previous piece, we called that moment sovereignty.

The moment when someone stops waiting for permission and chooses to act according to what they know is right.

That kind of courage has always been rare.

But every meaningful shift in human history has depended on it.

The first person who refuses to stay silent.

The first person who names what others only whisper.

The first person willing to risk their reputation in order to protect someone more vulnerable than themselves.

That moment is where silence ends.

And truth begins.

If Jesus walked the earth today, he would likely say many things that would challenge every political tribe, every institution, and every comfortable assumption.

But one message would almost certainly remain unchanged.

Protect the vulnerable.

Confront hypocrisy.

Choose truth — even when the crowd would rather you stay quiet.

The first part of this series may be read HERE and the second part HERE.

Alicia Boothe Haggermaker is a lifelong resident of Huntsville, Alabama, and a dedicated advocate for health freedom. For more than a decade, she has worked to educate the public and policymakers on issues of medical choice and public transparency. In January 2020, she organized a delegation of physicians and health freedom advocates to Montgomery, contributing to the initial draft of legislation that became SB267.

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