![]() ![]() The Bible is not a prop for our own ugly ideas.įinally, remember that this principle of “an eye for an eye” didn’t originate in the Bible. It invites us to be more loving, more compassionate, more inclusive, more open. Peterson points out that when we read the Bible correctly, it challenges our ideas. When the Bible reads me, it lays open some uncomfortable truths about my life-life self–righteousness, self–importance, self–aggrandizement, self–centredness, and a bunch of other words that begin with self.” When the Bible reads me, I consent to have it change my heart and my actions. “It’s not so much a matter of me reading the Bible, but having the Bible read me. I wonder if Trump knows that Jesus “gave us a new commandment, to love one another.” Holding up a Bible in a photo op as some kind of justification for being “the president of law and order” is blasphemy and idolatry of the worst kind.Įugene Peterson (who wrote “The Message” as a Bible translation) once said that when we read the Bible. I wonder if Trump knows that Jesus commands us to “love your enemies”. I wonder if Trump is even aware of how Jesus turns the original teaching on its head. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other.” (Matthew 5:38–39) He says, “You have heard that it was said ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, ‘don’t resist an evildoer. Now this same phrase also shows up in the teaching of Jesus. Or in the context of what was going on that day, don’t shoot rubber bullets and tear gas and flash grenades at peaceful protestors. ![]() As Leviticus 24 puts it, “Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: eye for eye, tooth for tooth …” and so on. Rather, the purpose of this phrase is to limit how a person retaliates for a personal injury. When this phrase shows up in the Old Testament (Exodus 21: 23–24 and Leviticus 24: 19–20), it doesn’t give permission to retaliate. An eye for an eye … and in Trump’s mind, the Bible teaches retribution.Įxcept it doesn’t. You can’t let people get away with anything for fear they’ll take advantage of you. It’s quite clear (even with the garbled syntax) that Trump understood this phrase from the Bible to be a warrant for getting tough. And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you.” ![]() And we have to be firm and have to be very strong. And they laugh at our face, and they’re taking our jobs, they’re taking our money, they’re taking the health of our country. But you know, if you look at what’s happening to our country, I mean, when you see what’s going on with our country, how people are taking advantage of us, and how they scoff at us and laugh at us. He quickly responded, “An eye for an eye. The interviewer asked Trump if he had a favourite Bible verse. As many have said, it would have been better if Trump had opened the Bible he was holding and taken some of its words to heart.Īs I was reflecting on this, I remembered a radio interview from 2016 when Trump was still just a candidate. It reminded me of someone holding someone else’s baby without any prior experience. It seems as if he had never held a book before. I will never forget the image of how awkwardly he held that Bible. “The military will dominate the streets”, he said. Moments before, at a press conference in the Rose Garden, he said, “I am your president of law and order.” He spoke those words to a nation which is reeling from both the protests over the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis and the pandemic which has gripped the USA with the worst level of casualties in the world. His attorney general had ordered police and the military to clear peaceful protestors out of the area with flash grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets so that Trump could walk from the White House to the church. Like many people of faith, I was deeply troubled when Donald Trump made the Bible nothing more than a prop for a photo op outside St John’s Episcopal Church opposite the White House.
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