In the eighth chapter of John, there’s a story of a woman caught in the act of adultery and the crowd that’s ready to stone her. (Bart Ehrman in his book, Misquoting Jesus, shows that the story was not part of the original scriptures and was added later, but I digress). Jesus is writing on the ground with his finger and looks up at the would-be stoners and says:

“He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.” – John 8:7

Lots of shoe gazing ensues, followed by crowd dispersal. Jesus diffused the situation by changing the perspective.

Which is something we should all be doing regarding the BP oil spill. Fists in the air won’t accomplish much; more shoe-gazing might. Mark Johnson writes a compelling post about this in the God’s Politics blog:

“I know, however, that I am in no position to “throw the first stone.” My style and standard of living cries for oil wells to be built.”

Read the whole thing. Then count your laces.