THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501060453
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By TOM BOYER AND ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 197 lines
Thou shalt not kill, the Lord thundered to Moses on Mount Sinai. So how do people use the Bible to justify murder?
John C. Salvi III, accused in two abortion-clinic murders in Massachusetts, and Paul Hill and Michael Griffin, convicted of shooting abortion doctors in Florida, all have quoted Scripture at length. Salvi kept a Bible among his few possessions in jail last week, and late last year disrupted a Catholic mass with an anti-abortion diatribe.
On the fringe of the anti-abortion movement has lurked a small band of radicals who have sought to find passages in the Bible that they say support opening fire on places like Norfolk's Hillcrest Clinic, as Salvi is accused of doing on New Year's weekend.
Biblical scholars and pastors voice outrage at this use of the Scripture. They say radical anti-abortionists cite isolated passages that ignore the complete message of the Bible, from Moses' law to Jesus' preaching.
``You can quote the Scripture to support anything you want to. But that's not saying you are quoting correctly,'' said the Rev. Donald Dunlap, pastor at Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk.
``To quote the Scripture for an intent which contradicts the way Jesus used it is totally wrong.''
Yet the Bible is an astonishingly complex document filled with violent stories and imagery, from stern Old Testament justice to Jesus Christ's own vivid metaphors.
As such, it is vulnerable to those who would pull passages out of their historical or social context and use them to promote their personal views.
Some scholars point out that this has been an issue particularly in the United States, where the Bible was used as a law book by pioneers who had no other law, and who interpreted for themselves without any education in Biblical history.
Used in that way, ``it's like taking a Rorschach test - you open up the Scriptures and see in them whatever you think you see,'' said James Goss, a Biblical scholar at the University of California at Northridge.
``It's the old saw - do you allow the Scripture to interpret you, or do you tell the Scripture what it is supposed to say?'' he asked. ``We all want to make it turn out the way we want to hear it.''
For many who oppose abortion, the commandment against killing is a direct commentary on the immorality of allowing women to terminate unwanted pregnancies.
Last week, an anti-abortion telephone hotline, based in Wichita, ended its message with the Biblical warning: ``Woe to the bloody city,'' (Ezekiel 24:6). But abortion is not discussed in the Bible, so any arguments based on the Biblical quotation rely largely on interpretation and extrapolation. The status of unborn children is treated only in a few passages, which must be understood in light of the high infant mortality rate during ancient times.
Jewish tradition views the fetus as potential life, rather than a full human life, said Arthur Ruberg, rabbi at Beth El Temple in Norfolk. ``That is not to say one is negligent of potential life. Potential life is a creation of God. But it is not actual life.''
In the book of Exodus, there is a passage that draws a distinction between a pregnant mother and her child. The passage states that if two men are fighting and accidentally cause a pregnant woman to lose the baby, the punishment is a monetary fine set by the pregnant woman's husband. However, if the woman dies from the injury, the penalty is death.
According to the passage, Exodus 21:23, ``If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.''
The difference in punishment indicates that different values are placed on the lives of the mother and the unborn child, Ruberg said. ``If abortion were murder, then there would be a death penalty in both cases.''
Under Jewish teaching, the fetus becomes an actual life when it emerges from the mother's womb. Ancient Jewish law specifically states that if a woman's life is endangered by her pregnancy, the fetus may be cut up and removed, because her life takes precedence over its life, Ruberg said.
But the moment the child emerges from the womb, it cannot be touched, he said, because ``the mother and child are equal.''
The Bible has a clear and continuous message about the sacred joy of birth. The theme starts in Genesis, when Eve expresses her happiness at giving birth to Cain and extends through the New Testament. In the Book of Luke, Elizabeth's baby leaps joyfully in her womb at the news of Mary's pregnancy.
Other non-canonical writings from the second century - reflecting the practices of New Testament Christianity - expressly forbid abortion, said J. Lyle Story, associate professor and associate dean at Regent University's School of Divinity.
The Didache, a written account of the teaching of the 12 Apostles, places abortion in a lengthy list of forbidden actions, including murder, adultery and theft. The Epistle of Pseudo-Barnabas, written during the same period, condemns abortion and infanticide, the practice of leaving a baby out in nature to perish.
The authors of those accounts felt that Jesus would have opposed abortion. But, Story said, there is no justification for arguing that Jesus would support violence to end the practice.
``I think of Jesus' words in Matthew (26:52), `All who take the sword will perish by the sword,' '' Story said. ``Jesus, through his words, puts an end to violence. The message of Jesus is peace.''
*****
Outside the Norfolk City jail last week, a small group of anti-abortion activists prayed for Salvi, carrying placards such as one that read: ``God Bless John Salvi - Numbers 25:13.''
The reference is to an Old Testament story in which Israelite men, breaking the law of Moses, indulge in sexual immorality with women from a neighboring land and turn their back on God by worshiping foreign gods.
God angrily begins a plague on the Israelites, relenting only after Phinehas, a grandson of the great priest Aaron, takes a lance and impales one of the wayward Israelite men and his female companion. God then praises Phinehas for restoring the Lord's honor.
Anti-abortion radicals such as the Rev. David C. Trosch, a Catholic priest who has been removed from his Alabama parish, claim the story supports an individual's use of deadly force when a society has lost its moral compass. Those who assassinate abortion doctors are the modern-day equivalent to Phinehas, they suggest.
But viewed within the context of theocratic ancient Israelite society, the interpretation is just the opposite, suggests Russell I. Gregory, a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Radford University and an expert on the Hebrew Bible.
``Phinehas acted within the context of what was considered righteous in this society,'' Gregory said. Such an interpretation would argue against illegal violence to stop abortion in a society where abortion is legal.
Old Testament stories of people killed in Moses' time are usually people who went against Moses' authority. ``If anything, they reinforce the authority of the state,'' he said.
Other Bible passages are misused because they contain symbolic language, which if taken literally can lead to dangerous distortion, scholars said.
While the isolated phrase ``an eye for an eye'' is often cited as an example of the Jewish approach to ethics, rabbis have consistently interpreted the phrase as a requirement for monetary compensation, said Rabbi Ruberg of Beth El Temple.
The historical record shows that capital punishment was used in murder cases, but that parallel punishment clearly did not extend to body parts, Ruberg said.
According to the Talmud, a collection of ancient rabbinic teaching, a man who blinds the eye of another would be punished by paying the victim for the value of his eye. The payment was calculated on the loss of value if the blinded victim were sold as a servant.
Though Jesus Christ's language sometimes sounds violent to modern ears, it needs to be understood in a literary context.
``Sometimes there's hyperbole or overstatement in scripture,'' said Craig Wansink, an assistant professor of Biblical studies at Virginia Wesleyan College. ``It's not meant to be taken literally.''
Wansink cites Matthew 5:29, in the midst of Jesus' great Sermon on the Mount: ``If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.''
Many scholars say that Jesus is speaking metaphorically, trying to get his followers to attack the impulses and appetites at the root of their sin. Wansink sometimes tells his classes the story of a college student in Alaska who gouged his own eye and was found with a cleaver, trying to chop off his hand. Misinterpreting Biblical intent is no trivial matter.
In Matthew 10:34, Christ tells his followers: ``Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.''
But read in context, this is hardly a call to arms, said Dunlap of Freemason Street Baptist Church. Jesus is warning his followers of the high price they may pay for their faith, such as rejection by their families.
``The sword is used as a symbol, because Jesus used strong language to make his point,'' Dunlap said. ``The point was that your family will reject you, and that would be like a sword piercing your heart.''
Dunlap looks to another quotation in Matthew 26:52, where Jesus chides a disciple who has cut off the ear of a man who came to seize Jesus: ``Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.''
``He did not resort to violence to escape from violent death, or allow his followers to use it,'' said Dunlap. ``In dying a violent life, he sounded the death knell for violence.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
TAMARA VONINSKI/Staff
Anti-abortion advocates Rae Powell, left, and her husband, Bill, and
their daughter, Melissa attend a vigil outside Norfolk City Jail
last week. Another participant at the vigil, Donald Spitz, used a
bullhorn to shout, ``John Salvi,...you are a hero. We love you.
Thank you for what you did.''
PAUL AIKEN/Staff
Connie Hannah, left, vice president for Tidewater National
Organization for Women, hands out signs to two pro-choice protesters
at Norfolk General District Court.
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Al Markhowits of Norfolk was among the NOW members who picketed near
the entrance of the Norfolk General District Court holding signs
showing photos of Shannon Lowney, a receptionist who was killed at a
Brookline abortion clinic on Dec. 30.
by CNB