There’s been some dust kicked up at the moderate news service ABP over an opinion piece article titled "Was Jesus a Racist?" written by Migual De La Torre back on February 23, 2009. In the article De La Torre looks at Jesus’ conversation with the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28 and turns it into a naïve political commentary on the treatment of illegal aliens. More disconcerting that the eisegesis and very poor hermeneutics, however, is the heterodox Christology the article puts forward. In De La Torre’s reading, Jesus was a racist, and the woman was his teacher. He concludes: "And thanks to her, Jesus’ ministry was radically changed." And: "Her remark shocked Jesus into realizing that faith was not contingent on a person’s ethnicity."
The article set off an appropriate flurry of protest in the posted comments (worth reading). De La Torre responded with a follow up last Wednesday (March 18, 2009) with another article titled "Why I am a Heretic?" in which he defends himself as heroic heretic fighting the status quo and pushing the boundaries of interpretation. He even makes Jesus out to be a heretic: "Although I am no Christ, I follow in his footsteps with all my heart and mind, using his own form of heresy as my model."
I was also struck by this statement in the article: "We Christian heretics believe the Word of God is inerrant." That comment shows just how emptied of meaning the whole concept of "inerrancy" has become among self-professing evangelicals. Even social gospel liberals who have abandoned orthodox conceptions of Christology are inerrantists!
Maybe some in moderate Baptist churches will read these articles and the comments posted on them and wake up to what is really being promoted in moderate Baptist theological circles.
JTR
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