Tit for Tat

Tit-for-Tat means inflicting injury or insult in return after one has been injured or insulted.  The game is being played all the time these days in the political realm and I find myself caught up in it.  I don’t want to be caught up in it.  I don’t want to play the game. 

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” did not originate with the Hebrew or Christian Bible, though it is used in Exodus 21-24 and in Leviticus 24:19-21 and in Matthew 5:38-42.  The words actually come from the Code of Hammurabi.  Hammurabi was king of Babylon in 1792-1750 BC.   

Donald Trump’s favorite Bible verse is “an eye for an eye,” and I’m assuming his favorite is the one found in Exodus (he did not give a chapter and verse).  It certainly is not the one found in Matthew 5:38-42, where Jesus repudiates even the notion of “an eye for an eye.”  

In 2015 Trump said his favorite verse (we don’t know which one) in the Bible had greatly impacted his thinking and his character.  “Well, I think many, I mean, you know, when we get into the Bible, I think many.  So many…And some people—look, an eye for an eye, you can almost say that.  That’s not particularly a nice thing.  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….And we have to be firm and have to be very strong.  And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you.”  Yes, we can, Mr. Trump, especially if we read all of it—including Matthew 5:38-42!

Mr. Trump often mentions the Bible as his favorite book, with “The Art of the Deal” as his favorite second.  I suspect there are many Christians (supposedly the people of the New Covenant) who share Mr. Trump’s favorite verse from the Old Covenant, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” regardless of Christ’s repudiation of that Tit-for-Tat game.   Indeed, Trump’s “spiritual advisor,” Paula White, implied the “eye for an eye” mentality in her opening prayer at Trump’s rally in Orlando this week, praying:  “Let every demonic network (did she mean the “treasonous media”) that has aligned itself against the purpose, against the calling of President Trump, let it be broken, let it be torn down in the name of Jesus.”   That means  Jesus’ repudiation of an eye for an eye— that means the Christian faith—that means “me”—are to be broken and torn down—because we are aligned against “the purpose!”

Backyard wonders continue...