I grew up in the United Church of Christ so I'm not usually surprised by their "creative" use of Scripture. But this one shocked even me. One congregation chose a very interesting text to include in the banner of its website. (HT: Between Two Worlds)
Update - 2/13/06: St. James U.C.C. has replaced the biblical text with the church's phone number and thanks all who informed them about "our previously inaccurate quote." Thanks to Milton Stanley at Transforming Sermons for leaving a comment with that info.
I had emailed the church's pastor, telling him that if he'd be willing to offer an explanation for the selected text, I'd be interested in reading it and posting it here. While typing the above update I received the following reply from Pastor Roth: "Embarrassing faux pas! Thanks friend! I never noticed! Whoops! Webmaster is correcting."
As other bloggers have noted, this serves as a vivid illustration of the importance of not treating biblical verses atomistically but understanding them in their literary and canonical contexts.
Update - 6:15 PM: Chuck Currie, a UCC seminarian, left the following comment at Reverend Mike's House of Homiletic Hash: "I understand that the church will be offering a statement soon on their website explaining that someone hacked into their system and put up that piece of scripture."
6 comments:
Looks like they took it down. Could it be the "previously inaccurate quote" they now mention?
Thanks, Milton. I checked back a few times since posting and am glad to learn that they have since corrected the "previously inaccurate quote."
For posterity's sake, and for those who happened to miss the original entirely, what exactly did it say?
Luke 4:7 (KJV)
Like Drudge, you could at least leave a "Developing..." comment after each update ;-)
Wow. Thanks.
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