Monday, February 1, 2016
481 - An Eye on Politics
Spirituality Column #481
February 2, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
This weekly Christian column has come together for publication 481 straight Tuesdays – more than nine years – without much political commentary.
Other than the occasional “teachable moments” where culture clearly gets God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, church, faith, hope, love, etc. – the really key stuff – egregiously wrong, very little political grist is offered here. This is my opportunity to talk about Jesus.
I’m not shy about throwing in a relevant, timely, conversational reference to obviously secularized, God-insulting, Jesus denying, Spirit grieving machinations of the politically correct and socially outrageous silliness attendant to these modern / post-modern times. But I don’t “do” politics or social issues here. I’d rather focus on Jesus.
Few things we can actually touch or intellectually ingest help our focus on Jesus more than reading the Bible, studying the Bible, knowing the Bible, understanding the Bible and living the Bible. The producers of The Bible TV miniseries three years ago – Mark Burnett and Roma Downey – explained their motivation, quoted in the Wall Street Journal March 1, 2013: “Westerners cannot be considered literate without a basic knowledge of this foundational text.”
Bingo. I couldn’t agree more. Yet sadly, cultural-wide, Bible literacy is waning.
Still, if one is going to quote the Bible, one should at least “get” what the Bible is saying. It’s all too common – plus doctrinally misleading – to confuse, for example, contexts of Old Testament laws and New Testament grace.
Donald Trump stumbled into just such a faux pas last week talking to TV commentator Bill O’Reilly. Millions of folks heard what Trump said, but I wonder how many caught Trump’s glaring mixed-metaphor Bible blunder.
O’Reilly asked Trump, who had been offended by Fox News, to consider “Christian forgiveness.” Trump responded with “…it’s called ‘an eye for an eye.’”
Wittingly or not, Trump was quoting Jesus. But the context was mistaken. In the “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5, 6 and 7) Jesus famously mentions “…an eye for an eye…” (verse 5:38), citing a vengeful Old Testament law recorded in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, part of the Jewish “Torah,” the first five books of the Bible.
But unless Trump, a professing Christian, was intentionally quoting the Torah – unlikely since the topic was Christian forgiveness – Trump unwittingly gave a Jewish answer to a Christian question.
The Christian answer appears in the next verse (5:39); “… turn the other cheek.”
Context errors, lamentably, are made even by Bible-reading, church-going Christians. You cannot just insert Old Testament law into Christian forgiveness. They rarely mix, do violence to Christian grace, and make one sound biblically illiterate.
And oh, how I pray that being biblically illiterate was politically incorrect.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has opinions on politics, but trust in the Lord.
February 2, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
An Eye on Politics
By Bob WaltersThis weekly Christian column has come together for publication 481 straight Tuesdays – more than nine years – without much political commentary.
Other than the occasional “teachable moments” where culture clearly gets God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, church, faith, hope, love, etc. – the really key stuff – egregiously wrong, very little political grist is offered here. This is my opportunity to talk about Jesus.
I’m not shy about throwing in a relevant, timely, conversational reference to obviously secularized, God-insulting, Jesus denying, Spirit grieving machinations of the politically correct and socially outrageous silliness attendant to these modern / post-modern times. But I don’t “do” politics or social issues here. I’d rather focus on Jesus.
Few things we can actually touch or intellectually ingest help our focus on Jesus more than reading the Bible, studying the Bible, knowing the Bible, understanding the Bible and living the Bible. The producers of The Bible TV miniseries three years ago – Mark Burnett and Roma Downey – explained their motivation, quoted in the Wall Street Journal March 1, 2013: “Westerners cannot be considered literate without a basic knowledge of this foundational text.”
Bingo. I couldn’t agree more. Yet sadly, cultural-wide, Bible literacy is waning.
Still, if one is going to quote the Bible, one should at least “get” what the Bible is saying. It’s all too common – plus doctrinally misleading – to confuse, for example, contexts of Old Testament laws and New Testament grace.
Donald Trump stumbled into just such a faux pas last week talking to TV commentator Bill O’Reilly. Millions of folks heard what Trump said, but I wonder how many caught Trump’s glaring mixed-metaphor Bible blunder.
O’Reilly asked Trump, who had been offended by Fox News, to consider “Christian forgiveness.” Trump responded with “…it’s called ‘an eye for an eye.’”
Wittingly or not, Trump was quoting Jesus. But the context was mistaken. In the “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5, 6 and 7) Jesus famously mentions “…an eye for an eye…” (verse 5:38), citing a vengeful Old Testament law recorded in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, part of the Jewish “Torah,” the first five books of the Bible.
But unless Trump, a professing Christian, was intentionally quoting the Torah – unlikely since the topic was Christian forgiveness – Trump unwittingly gave a Jewish answer to a Christian question.
The Christian answer appears in the next verse (5:39); “… turn the other cheek.”
Context errors, lamentably, are made even by Bible-reading, church-going Christians. You cannot just insert Old Testament law into Christian forgiveness. They rarely mix, do violence to Christian grace, and make one sound biblically illiterate.
And oh, how I pray that being biblically illiterate was politically incorrect.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) has opinions on politics, but trust in the Lord.
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