They suggest that among presidents, he ranks as the most
learned since John Quincy Adams, the most profound since James Madison
and the most visionary since Thomas Jefferson. And he is, of course, the
most rhetorically gifted politician since Pericles.
Yet, remarkably, he is frequently misunderstood. How can this be?
After the June 8 news conference in which he said “the private sector is doing fine,”
he, responding to the public’s strange inability to parse plain
English, held another news conference in which he said: “It’s absolutely
clear the economy is not doing fine; that’s the reason I had a press
conference.”
That clarified everything, but then on July 13 the
public, which Obama really must regard as a disappointment, again failed
to comprehend him. In Roanoke, Va., he gave what any reasonable person
must admit was an admirably pithy and entirely clear distillation of his
political philosophy: “You didn’t build that.” The public’s obtuseness
forced his campaign to run an ad saying “my words about small business”
had been taken “out of context.” Ah, context.
In
late October 1980, as Ronald Reagan prepared for his one debate with
President Jimmy Carter, Reagan’s aides worried that Carter might unearth
some of the inconveniently colorful things Reagan had said over the
years, such as when Patty Hearst’s kidnappers
demanded the distribution of free food, including canned goods, Reagan
reportedly said something like: This would be a good time for a botulism
epidemic. When an aide wondered how Reagan could explain that quip,
there was a long pause, and then another aide impishly suggested: “Say
it was taken out of context.”
As Obama tries to cope with the
public’s peculiar inability to discern his meanings, perhaps he can take
comfort from very similar difficulties of another candidate for
national office. On Aug. 18, 1920, the Democrats’ vice presidential
nominee, campaigning in Butte, Mont., said that it would be fine for the
United States to join the League of Nations because our nation would
have multiple votes. He assured listeners that “the votes of Cuba,
Haiti, San Domingo, Panama, Nicaragua and of the other Central American
states” would not be cast “differently from the vote of the United
States,” which is “the big brother of these little republics.”
Then,
referring to his days as assistant secretary of the Navy, the vice
presidential candidate said: “You know I have had something to do with
running a couple of little republics. The facts are that I wrote Haiti’s
constitution myself and, if I do say so, I think it a pretty good
constitution.” He added: “Why, I have been running Haiti or San Domingo
for the past seven years.”
As David Pietrusza writes in “1920: The Year of Six Presidents,”
Haiti and the Dominican Republic had been U.S. protectorates since July
1915 and May 1916, respectively, but the boastful candidate had not
written any constitution. Nevertheless, he repeated his indelicate claim
— U.S. Marines had recently been involved in some Haitian bloodshed —
at three more Montana stops and then in San Francisco.
When,
inevitably, the candidate’s words caused consternation here and there,
he insisted he never said them, adding magnanimously, “I feel certain
that the misquotation was entirely unintentional.” But the controversy
continued, so on Sept. 2, in Maine, he added: “I should think that it
would be obvious that one who has been so largely in touch with foreign
relations through the Navy Department during the last seven years could
not have made a deliberate false statement of this kind.”
Idaho’s
Republican Sen. William Borah dryly said: “I am willing to admit that
he didn’t say it, though I was there and heard him say it at the time.”
Thirty-one witnesses of the Butte speech signed an affidavit attesting
that the candidate had said what he was reported to have said, but
public attention had wandered and the issue faded.
Far from being
badly injured by this episode, the vice presidential candidate went on
to become one of the three presidents in “modern history” — Obama
includes Lincoln — whose achievements in their first two years are,
Obama says, “possible” to compare to his. The candidate was one of
liberalism’s saints, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Context - Flame
The first task of the interpreter is called exegesis
(extra
Jesus)
Naw, I said exegesis, man
It’s a Latin word
Don’t be scared
Matter of fact, I laughed when I first heard it, too.
It's spelled
e-x-e-g-e-s-i-s
Guarantee you learn this process and you’ll be blessed
Exegesis is the careful systematic
Study of scripture for the
Christian
This should be a habit.
But to discover the original intended
meaning
Of the author to his audience is exegeting
But to do this man
you need some tools
So let me recommend a couple of things you should
use
'aight cool
First, man, you need this book
It’s called a commentary
and it helps you to further look
Into some essential things you need to
check
In order for you to properly interpret the text.
With this skill this should keep you from heresy
With this skill this should keep you from heresy
And keep you
from going through theological therapy,
The words of God will change
your life
If you Keep the text in its context
With this skill
This
should keep you from heresy
And keep you from going through theological
therapy
The words of God will change your life,
If you keep the text
in its context.
You need some more books
You need some more books
I know its gettin’ scary
But, you need
some definitions
Get a bible dictionary
To go without these tools
You
can’t afford it
That’s why you need this book called a concordance
And, every time you start to think this is too much to do
And, every time you start to think this is too much to do
I recommend you
reflect on 2 Timothy 2 and 15
And, you’ll see what I mean
Simply because
the serpent is lurking to glean
Those who don’t read
And, those who don’t study
And, those who don’t study
To keep a lock on this treasure
From unlocking the pleasure
From unlocking the pleasure
'Cause God’s word is lovely
That’s why we hold it as precious
as pearls
To let our exegetical work reflect to the world
In accuracy
Hoping that you happy to see
The very words God breathe handle
accurately
Yeah, so many take text out of context
And, come up with mess
and more nonsense
With this skill this should keep you from heresy
With this skill this should keep you from heresy
And keep you
from going through theological therapy,
The words of God will change
your life
If you Keep the text in its context
With this skill
This
should keep you from heresy
And keep you from going through theological
therapy
The words of God will change your life
If you keep the text
in its context
What you don’t wanna do is called eisegesis
(I see Jesus)
Naw, I
said eisegesis, man
You a silly, dude.
It's Latin, too.
And, that’s just the
act of when your adding to
Or the process of reading one’s own
meaning
Into the text and that’s just eisegeting
Don’t fret
I know
these words are new
And phrases, too.
But, it’s cool to go back to school.
It's spell ei-se-gesis.
Guarantee you learn this process and God’ll be
vexed
A text can never mean what it never meant before
To its original
reader or author
So, if you run into a difficult passage
And, you know
the Bible never contradicts itself
Then, turn the pages to a parallel
passage
And just let the scripture interpret itself.
With this skill this should keep you from heresy
With this skill this should keep you from heresy
And keep you
from going through theological therapy,
The words of God will change
your life
If you keep the text in its context
With this skill
This
should keep you from heresy
And keep you from going through theological
therapy
The words of God will change your life
If you keep the text
in its context
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