12-12-2017, 08:12 AM
Impressions, rather than critique.
The title and first line put me in mind of Jesus telling Peter to put away his sword (after he'd wounded an attacker with it) in Gethsemane. On the other hand, Jesus had said shortly before (at the Last Supper) that one should sell his cloak to buy a sword. Presumably that would be an AR-15 or AK-47 today... but the only weapon Jesus handled (so far as I can recall) was a banker-scattering rope... and he healed Peter's opponent.
On the whole, then, I think Jesus would raise his hands in a Mexican standoff... but not insist that his followers do the same unless it was demanded by competent temporal authority ("Caesar"). The assailant Peter wounded was something like a warrant server, in modern terms.
"Eyes of lead" is good. Jesus would certainly not allow armed force as a first resort (turn the other cheek), but would also not disallow it as the last. In modern gunfighting terminology, he'd advise "Condition Yellow" rather than "Condition White."
So the work's complaint about going around with trigger-happy leaden eyes is valid for Christians, I'd say, but the basis in "what would Jesus do" is not as strong as it might be.
Very thought-provoking: thanks for posting.
The title and first line put me in mind of Jesus telling Peter to put away his sword (after he'd wounded an attacker with it) in Gethsemane. On the other hand, Jesus had said shortly before (at the Last Supper) that one should sell his cloak to buy a sword. Presumably that would be an AR-15 or AK-47 today... but the only weapon Jesus handled (so far as I can recall) was a banker-scattering rope... and he healed Peter's opponent.
On the whole, then, I think Jesus would raise his hands in a Mexican standoff... but not insist that his followers do the same unless it was demanded by competent temporal authority ("Caesar"). The assailant Peter wounded was something like a warrant server, in modern terms.
"Eyes of lead" is good. Jesus would certainly not allow armed force as a first resort (turn the other cheek), but would also not disallow it as the last. In modern gunfighting terminology, he'd advise "Condition Yellow" rather than "Condition White."
So the work's complaint about going around with trigger-happy leaden eyes is valid for Christians, I'd say, but the basis in "what would Jesus do" is not as strong as it might be.
Very thought-provoking: thanks for posting.
Non-practicing atheist