New Year’s Eve I will visit Dr. Womack. The question will be, “Have my eyes changed?” My wife tells me that the color of my eyes change. Here I am talking about the strength of my eyes. Will I need to bi-focals?

I am sure you are interested in the outcome.

We all have a lens through which we take in the experiences of life. Our filters are different. Think of the different ways the recent CIA report has been interpreted. On the one hand many are outraged the report was published. Concern for safety, if not embarrassment having to admit a loss of moral authority for the U.S., provides the rationale for the use of EITs. On the other hand many are equally outraged that this is even the subject of a report. That the United States would use such tactics is inhumane.

How you respond to the various articles and social media posts, in part, will be determined by your lens, your filter.

editingBrian Zhand comes out strong. Support for torture excludes one from being Christian. Read that carefully. While his first draft contended you could not be a Christian, his revision says you cannot be Christian. This is no subtle distinction. And, I might quickly add that I am not sure one may be a Christian long and continue to hold to torture as a viable option for a Nation-State.

The key lies in the word Christian as a descriptor of one’s system of values. Christians, to be Christian, cannot support torture. There are many things we need to learn not to deem as acceptable if we are going to claim we follow Jesus.

Jon Sobrino, see my last post, wrote in his Christology that one grave danger is moving Jesus out of his historical context. Doing so leaves us with abstractions when we should be working with the concrete needs of people and the world.

Listening to Tripp and Bo talk about the texts for Advent 2 came with this nugget of goodness. “Jesus edited Isaiah.” Most will not care for the way the point is made, but take a listen to the podcast here and see if you don’t come way thinking it was a good thing that Jesus edited Isaiah.

Editing

About the Author
Husband to Patty. Daddy to Kimberly and Tommie. Grandpa Doc to Cohen, Max, Fox, and Marlee. Pastor to Snow Hill Baptist Church. Graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Reading. Photography. Golf. Colorado. Jeeping. Friend. The views and opinions expressed here are my own and should not be construed as representing the corporate views of the church I pastor.

3 comments on “Zhand, Sobrino, and Editing Isaiah

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