James explains that reading the texts through the eyes of the Forgiving Victim is a particular option for interpretation. What difference does this option make to how we interpret Scriptures? What unheard voices might emerge using this option?
For me, these discussion questions are best answered through writing about World War II television drama: Foyle’s War. Because I’m seeing elements of Forgiving Victim interpretation played out in each episode, I see this show as a jumping off point for deeper understanding as I apply Forgiving Victim interpretation to Holy Scripture.
Foyle’s War shows how the violent struggle for economic supremacy between Nazi Germany and The Allies plays out in the lives of ordinary people in and around Hastings, England. Deputy Chief Superintendent Foyle, who worked as a Hastings area chief police detective, resigned in the episode (http://bit.ly/1QhYmmr) I watched earlier this week; but only after bluntly sharing his reasons in a face to face encounter with the new Assistant Commissioner:
“… a man guilty of coercion and sabotage can’t be touched while two boys guilty of nothing more than slipping off the rails because of a lack of parental control will get several years with hard labor. Assistant Commissioners doing their very best to undermine me in front of my staff. Yep. I’d say I’ve had enough.”
One theme in this episode considered a small boy traumatized into muteness by the horror of the bombing of his school. Only later on in the show, after a random explosion close to him, could he relive the horror of the original school bombing, and begin speaking again.
Foyle’s War struggles to reveal unheard victims of violent human conflict just as did the Biblical redactors, and New Testament writers. Each episode interprets wartime England through the eyes and the words of victims of random and intentional violence. The show strips away cultural veneers of patriotic Marcionism; and the moral gymnastics of faux fundamentalism. A contemporary allegory of the unheard voice, this drama continually brings unheard voices onto its stage to connect real consequences with unexamined intentions.