May the peace of our Lord (and me) be upon you in this celebration season of my birth.

You have been much in my heart of late. Partly this is because I know the crushing pressure you feel as leader of the richest and most powerful nation on Earth.

Also, it is impossible not to think of you: Millions of people -- millions, George -- pray for you every day. People of all faiths and denominations. People in countries you have never visited.

Even people who believe in no God offer up prayers of hope when they hear you speak or see you on television because you hold their fate in your hands.

Since Sept. 11, dear brother, I have noticed that you have turned away from me. I do not hear you ask yourself or anyone else the question you once asked all the time: "What would Jesus do?"

Remember, George? It was so familiar, it became an abbreviation: W.W.J.D.? When you ran for president, you told the world I was your favorite philosopher.

I know why you turned away. To face me, and all that I demand of those who follow me, requires tenacious courage and, in politics, a kind of leadership that is rare.

Some very sick, twisted and hate-filled men have inflicted great suffering upon you and your people. They have murdered in the name of The One Who Creates All, and they seem determined to go on murdering.

You want not only to keep them from hurting you again, you and your nation's people want to hurt them back. And you are willing to rationalize all manner of destruction, waste and -- if necessary -- killing toward those ends.

Dear brother, you are right to want to stop evil. The tricky part for humans has always been, what is the best way to stop it? My four-letter answer is written, over and over, in the Bible, but it has been ignored by potentates, peons and sometimes popes for 2,000 years.

Why? Because it contradicts the human instinct for vengeance.

Our Father said, "Vengeance is mine," George, not, "Vengeance belongs to those who have been wronged." Vengeance is never the answer to "What would Jesus do?" Especially vengeance that masquerades as "justice."

This is why I came, remember? Why I grew from Baby Jesus to Christ who suffered humiliation, unspeakable physical pain and a heart that was broken more times than there are stars in the skies.

As one who has accepted me as the light and the way, George, you have a great opportunity -- and a duty -- to show the world my way. The way of love.

As you know, I never said it would be easy.

Following me means forsaking the desire to hurt back, to rob your enemies of their humanness, even when their inhuman acts aim to rob you of yours. It means refusing to buy the Great Lie of evil -- that true peace and justice can be achieved through deliberate and systematic violence.

It means enduring the insults of angry and frightened people who wrongly equate "love thine enemies" with "have no spine."

To borrow from our holy brother Mahatma Gandhi, following me means donning the heavy cloak of peace and wearing it forever -- not just when it is convenient, or when you are watching someone else's war.

"Blessed are the peacemakers," was not a throw-away line I mumbled to Matthew. In Proverbs, "Seek peace and pursue it" listed no exemptions for world leaders.

Dear brother, as you celebrate my birth and reflect upon my life, I beg you, reverse the course. Pursue peace with the fervor, and resources, with which you now pursue our damaged and insane brother Osama bin Laden and the infested souls who follow his malicious path. They may be beyond reason and love, but millions more are not.

For God's sake, George, for the sake of your nation's future, face me again and ask what I would do.

©2001 San Francisco Chronicle

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