Posted on 08/04/2012 9:02:42 PM PDT by SC Swamp Fox
“I recommend reading the entire article.”
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I recommend reading the entire Bible.
the most famous book inspired by Job isn’t that crappy feel good book by the Rabbi. It’s “Answer to Job” by Carl Jung.
That time in my life, and the book of Job changed my life forever.
Prayers lifted for her victims. And for her.
/johnny
The book doesn’t have that horribly complex a story in it. A fellow, Job, who lived well before Abraham, and who behaved very conscientiously towards God though by no means being perfect (no sinner is) was commended by God before the angels. The devil was among them and mocked Job to God, claiming that Job’s faith would easily break down if he met calamity. God gave the devil permission to cause such calamity and then the main theme of the book begins. Job’s friends were even more ignorant than Job was about what was happening (none of them understood spiritual warfare), and an almost comic sequence follows for many chapters where they try to blame Job for the problems and Job keeps protesting that he’s innocent. Finally the wisest of the friends emphasizes the sovereignty of God and then God elaborates on that point out of the whirlwind. Job calms down and realizes the point of the ordeal wasn’t his guilt or innocence and confesses to God that he was wrong to have assumed that it was. God raises Job up, has him pray for the erring friends who tried to blame him, and blesses him a second time. The End.
If this is all this lady has to write it really isn’t very much. It will take maybe an hour....
I’m all for getting tough on drunk drivers - but forcing him to read a religious text is not what this country is about.
But, yea... you pretty much summed it up overall.
You learn a lot by re-reading a book like Job every day for 4 months.
I could probably write a book about it, myself. ;)
/johnny
Did you even read the excerpt?
Oh wonderful, implementing a state religion edict in direct conflict with our constitution! /S
I wonder how many of those here so smugly pleased would still be so happy if the text mandated were Mormon, Buddhist, or even Islamic?
Not many I am sure!
Watch that slippery slope, a person could get hurt.
She has 8 years in prison to work on it.
I’m more bemused about it than concerned, as I myself summed the book up in a few minutes of typing. I don’t know why the judge granted it, as it seems de minimis. But so what if a religion appropriate task like this was assigned. For a Mormon, some Mormon text. For a Muslim, a chapter of the Quran. For an atheist, some humanist screed. This is all de minimis and nobody who is a party to the case seems to be complaining.
I recommend reading the entire article.
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I recommend reading the entire Bible.
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I recommend reading the entire works of Shakespeare.
“To brag unto them, “Thus I did, and thus!”
- Coriolanus, Act 2, Scene 2.
Why of course, which is why the fuss over something that a knowledgeable Christian can turn out in a few minutes seems to be over my head. In that time one could turn out a very minute biblical commentary that expands for pages on almost every verse.
“There was a large discussion on record about how she has really turned to religion to cope and deal with a lot of things that have happened to her in her life,” Sikora said.
With Duncan’s help, Sikora said Tolley has turned to Christ. Duncan spoke on Tolley’s behalf in court. He said Nettles’ choice of Bible book is interesting and appropriate.
“I think (Nettles’) faith and his compassion led him to use the Book of Job,” Duncan said. “Job made it through, and he wants her to know she can, too.”
Sikora said despite others’ opinions on the unique sentence, Tolley embraces it.
“There was a large discussion on record about how she has really turned to religion to cope and deal with a lot of things that have happened to her in her life,” Sikora said.
Um, not too well it seems, else she would not have been in that court!
Not expecting too much from someone who continually substitutes one addiction for another, allowing them to shift all personal responsibility to another party, or substance.
Wonder how long before she kills someone during a “Lapse”?
I only read the beginning of the excerpt. But now looking further on, I see that it was actually the defendant’s idea. My bad. Sorry.
Is there any other way?
Actually you’ve missed the main points of the Book of Job.
It’s about whether suffering is punishment for sin or whether sometime the totally innocent suffer.
Job is not a sinner. He’s innocent. (This is a didactic story, character-traits are exaggerated to make a point.) His friends’ theology is that suffering only happens as punishment for sin. (And conversely, prosperity is reward for righteousness. Prosperity-Gospel 101.)
Job knows he has not sinned. He begs God to explain why he, being innocent, has to suffer so much. His friends tell him to admit he’s sinned so as not to risk damnation.
But that would be a lie. Job doesn’t lie. He is righteous. Yet he’s suffering. Both are clear facts, to Job. (His friends only know the fact of his suffering. They cannot KNOW that he’s sinned. They ASSUME that he’s sinned, based on their theology of suffering.)
Job’s friends want him to accuse God of injustice, of punishing those who don’t deserve it. Job steadfastly refuses to say that God was wrong to punish him though he’s innocent. Job is a man of utter faith: he basically says, I don’t see why I should be suffering. I did not do anything to deserve it. But I will not curse God for this. I believe God is just,
no
matter
what.
Job is about faith when it seems impossible. About believing that God is righteous, no matter how puzzling God’s behavior seems to be.
The point of the book is to reject the false theology that suffering is always punishment for sin. It sets the stage for Christ, the Suffering One who is TOTALLY innocent.
For many religions, including classic Judaism, the assumption that suffering is punishment for sin is deeply engrained. The Book of Job points toward the immense breakthrough in Christianity: that the Innocent Sufferer will somehow, in the end, set right the suffering of all innnocents. God takes care of innocent suffering by Himself suffering Innocently.
Job is crucial today because a lot of people look at the Holocaust and say, one cannot believe in God (the God of Christianity or Judaism) any more—how could a Good God permit that kind of innocent suffering? Modern people curse God, blame God for letting it happen. Job refused to do that.
.
The message out of the whirlwind is to tell Job
Job is thus, together with Isaiah 53, one of the most important Christological books in the OT.
Strike next-to-last line. Was going to develop something further.
A summary of the Koran?
My pleasure, your honor!
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