Scarecrows and PC

These Federal "Reports and Continuations" are killing me time wise, but we all need  break time and again.

Last weekend, The Wizard of Oz was on the tube so Gavin and I sat and watched a bit of it. We own it, but it still  captures you in the story. I noticed something on the TV edited version we were watching. In the original  movie there are a couple scenes where the Scarecrow is caring a handgun. It is while they are headed to get the broom of the wicked witch. He was obviously not very good with it since no one is hurt except him! He is totally dismembered and has to be rebuilt. On the TV version we saw, those portions were edited out. Gavin and I both looked  for them to joke about it. (Please, no lectures on handguns. He and I have talked at length about this subject.)

That got me to thinking, does editing out portions of old movies you do not agree with make revisionist history? Are we changing something that "was"  because in our day things are totally different? Did you hear the uproar resurface last week during the Titanic's 100th anniversary regarding the wealthy getting on lifeboats and the poor (steerage) not? I am not agreeing with this, but in the early 1900's the world worshiped the wealthy much like we do celebrities today, thus making it: "Well, of course they get on the lifeboat," in the minds of some.

This  plays into our reading of Scripture as well.  I am doing a message series in my church on the Book of Ruth and the world was just different then. Not better, just different. We have to be careful not to "revise" what we read into what we think it should mean. This is especially true when applying principles from these passages.

Let's not be too quick to judge folks who lived before us because we are "more enlightened," or have more facts. If the Lord does not call everyone out of the pool, in less time than we care to admit, we will be the ones folks are looking back on and having our behavior judged by another standard.