Visualizing violence

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J. Denny Weaver’s thesis (“Visualizing Violence,” May 20) is deeply flawed for it requires one to set aside and ignore huge portions of the Bible—including most of the book of Revelation. To accept Weaver’s thesis, one must attribute to Jesus motivation that Jesus did not exhibit. For instance, the experience at the well of Sychar had as its driving force the conversion of the woman and the residents of the town. In cleansing the temple, not once but twice, Jesus illustrated the basic need existing in the Jewish community to recover the respect and worship of God that he required. The house of God was not to be a den of robbers. If any remodeling of the social order occurred, it was incidental to Jesus’ mission.

It is astonishing, and yet not surprising, how higher criticism and the preoccupation with hermeneutics devalues the Scripture and turns Jesus into just another social activist.

Associated Issue: Poverty in the suburbs - May 20, 2008

Associated Article: Visualizing nonviolence

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