The American Political Exegesis, circa 2005

Politicians are fond of using labels to minimize their opponents: liberal, conservative, communist, facist, etc. Theologians do the same thing at times. One of the most popular is “proof-texting”. Proof texting can be functionally defined as reading small segments of biblical text out of context to prove a point. One starts with a point to prove and then looks for the segments of text, and only those segments, that support their point.

I was a political science major in college and spent many years as a political junkie. Which makes it hard to admit that politics have bored me badly in the last few years. CNN, Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday, etc. have been replaced with ESPN. I have paid little attention to general politics in the last 6 months since the November election. So, imagine my surprise this week when I catch a news report about how both the Republicans and Democrats are quoting the bible. The Republicans are focused on moral values including marriage; the Democrats quote the verses on the poor. Of course, my first reaction is that they both are proof-texting. Neither side is dealing with the totality of the text, just mining it for the pieces that useful at this moment. It is sad to see scripture become just one more weapon to be parsed and misused in the political cacophony that has become modern American politics.
No wonder why I continue to check out.