The Misuse of Scripture

You may have seen a Homeland Security video that uses the words of the prophet Isaiah. I don’t typically link to posts on “X” but this video needs to be seen. This video deserves a response.

The voiceover quotes the call of Isaiah in 6:8. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘ Here am I; send me!’ The music in the video says, “Roll on for a long time, sooner or later God’ll cut you down’¹. The images are of a military appearing operation with uniformed and armed people.

This of course, could not be farther from the intent of the text in Isaiah and of the prophets generally. I’ll leave it to others to talk about the problems of a government agency using a religious text in their promotional materials. I want to briefly focus on the absolute misuse of the text. This is a problem theologically because it leaves people with a false impression about what the Bible says. It misrepresents Isaiah’s experience. It tries to give the Department of Homeland Security some sort of divine invitation.

In Isaiah² chapter 6, Isaiah had a vision of the Lord and he is terrified. “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5). He was not gearing up to “cut you down” on God’s behalf and he was not inviting anyone to do so. Isaiah was not being sent on a military or policing mission.

The Biblical prophets in general, and Isaiah in particular, were tasked with speaking the truth to the political and religious powers of their time. Isaiah’s prophetic words to the King concern their lack of faithful obedience to God and their coming destruction, if they did not repent and change their ways.

“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:16-17 NRSVue)

“For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; national shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:3b-4 NRSVue)

Isaiah spoke about the need for the nation to be humble. Isaiah spoke about the disaster that awaits if the nation did not change its ways. “The Lord rises to argue his case; he stands to judge the people. The Lord enters into judgement with the elders and the princes of his people; It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. (Isaiah 3:13-15 NRSVue)

We could go on and on and on- sixty six chapters in Isaiah alone. No matter who the prophet was, their message called the nation back to faithfulness, which meant and still means, caring for the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the stranger. Torah could not be more clear that the people are to care for the stranger in their midst. Not hunt them down. Not expel them. Certainly not kill them.

Using the call of a prophet who lived around 700 BCE, to glorify and to recruit for the militarized actions of Homeland Security is nearly beyond belief as a misuse of Scripture. It is so egregious that one is almost speechless. Yet we must speak.

Isaiah was not called to hunt down migrants. He was not called to defend the homeland. He was called to speak truth to power. He was commissioned to call the nation’s leaders to repent and change their ways.

As Christians we cannot ignore this misuse of Scripture. Sometimes Evangelicals accuse progressive Christians of not taking the Bible seriously. This progressive Christian does take the Bible seriously. This kind of misuse must be called out. Bad theology kills. Literally has killed and will continue to kill unless we speak up.

To let this blasphemy- that’s a strong word, but it’s accurate- to let this blasphemy- go unchallenged will normalize it. Bit by bit the Bible becomes distorted and twisting into a grim parody of its actual message. Immoral actions are given a veneer of Biblical “cover”. A vaguely Christian civil religion that serves the interests of the powerful is marketed and normalized. That the Department of Homeland Security thinks this video is okay tells us we are in worrisome and dangerous territory. This misuse of Scripture must be called out every time we see it.

Speak up. Don’t let Christian Nationalism high jack the faith.

I can’t believe I need to write this, but here it is. Hunting down migrants is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1. This appears to be a Johnny Cash song, ↩︎
2. The book of Isaiah is a composite work where the words of several prophets who were active at different times in history are preserved. Chapters 1-39 are sometimes called First Isaiah and come from the eighth century BCE. ↩︎