The Good Samaritan-Sagebrush Gospel Version

Just then a Wyoming legislator stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? You wrote the law. You should know what is required. What do you read there?”

The lawmaker answered,  "It’s the Code of the West. Live each day with courage; take pride in your work; always finish what you start; do what has to be done; be tough, but fair; when you make a promise, keep it; ride for the brand; talk less, say more; remember that some things are not for sale; and know where to draw the line.”

Jesus said to him, “You’ve given the right answers; do these things and you’ll be known as a son of Wyoming.”

Wanting to justify himself, the legislator asked Jesus, “If we are to do what has to be done, tell me teacher, what is that? Where do we ‘draw the line?”

Jesus replied with a parable, “A gay man was going down from Muddy Gap to Rawlins, and fell into the hands of bigots, who beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

Now a lobbyist for WyWatch was going down that road, headed to Cheyenne; when she saw him she passed on the other side saying, “I have no time to help you. I must hurry to Cheyenne to protect the sanctity of life and marriage, and oppose early childhood education. Besides, helping you would only further the gay agenda, whatever that is.”

Likewise a CROW came and saw him, passing by quickly on the other side of the road, hollering over his shoulder at the wounded man, “I’d help but I don’t believe in creating a culture of dependency.” Then he scurried away mumbling something about drug testing people like him and how he should have armed himself if he didn’t want to end up like that and that he was probably a liberal or RINO anyway.

But an undocumented Samaritan who was traveling to a job no one in Wyoming would take but people like him, came near the wounded man; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds. Then he put him in the front seat of his old pick-up, and brought him to an inn near Bairoil, though he knew doing so increased the risk of being arrested and deported by the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The next day he took out one hundred of his own hard-earned dollars, about a week’s pay, and gave every penny to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’

As he left, the innkeeper knew what had to be done and where to draw the line and that no good deed should ever go unpunished. So he promptly called to report the Good Samaritan to ICE.

Jesus then turned to the legislator and asked, “Which of these do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the bigots?” The legislator said, “The one who rode for the brand, of course.”

“And who was that,” asked Jesus.  “Obviously it was the innkeeper,” said the legislator!

Jesus said to him, “That’s not who I had in mind. Since you all like to say Heaven is a local call from Wyoming, you ought to call me now and then.” Jesus said, “No. The man’s neighbor was actually the one who showed him mercy; the undocumented Samaritan who is now sitting in a for-profit detention center in Georgia waiting to be deported.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise, be merciful to the wounded.”  But the legislator was sad at these words, and went away sorrowful, for he knew he could never sell that idea to his base.

And that’s the Sagebrush Gospel. You can look it up…Luke 10.