If you grew up going to Sunday school and church, you were probably taught that what Christians call the “Old Testament” was a book of rules and laws from a stern and punishing God. The “New Testament,” on the other hand, was about love, mercy and grace—as epitomized by Jesus.
I don’t know if that was the experience of Manitoba premier Wab Kinew. But it seems like it might have been from when he described the province’s approach to the drug crisis: “Old Testament for the drug dealers, New Testament for the drug users.”
Unsurprisingly, some Jewish people took exception, even as they cut Kinew some slack for his penchant for shooting from the lip. That’s not how they view their scriptures—which they call the Tanakh—at all.
Sure, there are commandments and laws in the Hebrew Bible, along with accounts of divine punishment. But those accounts are balanced by messages of God’s mercy and an enduring covenantal relationship—a relationship that is characterized by God’s forgiveness, patience and redemption.
It all added up to an educational moment, as I noted in my recent Winnipeg Free Press column.
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