November 11, 2009

Oregonian headline: Estranged wife killed in shooting

Am I just calloused? The Oregonian chooses to headline today's paper with this. This kind of story/headline seems so old. Nothing about it makes me want to read the article. I feel almost like a voyeur. I assume it is ultimately a story about domestic violence. It is a tragedy. But is there anything new?

The biblical passage that comes to my mind is John 8.2-11...The Woman Caught in Adultery.
The connecting point is intimate relationship and violence. The situation in John does not directly mirror the Oregonian headline but the point that Jesus makes certainly undermines the justification of a violent response. This headline strikes me as a violent intrusion into a tragically personal matter.

ps. this response to headlines is beginning to tax me. I'm thinking of moving in a different direction.