Pastor's Thoughts:

Two months ago I started sharing insights from the book A New Kind of Christianity by Brian McLaren. He writes that there are ten important questions for the future of the faith. This month I will present his ideas around the question: How should the Bible be understood?

Rev. McLaren points to three “messes” Christians face when speaking to the world about the Bible. Each mess comes from making the Bible into a different book than it is intended to be. The first mess is when we try and make the Bible a science textbook. The second mess is when we try and turn the Bible into an ethical rule book. Yes, I agree that much good guidance exists in the Bible yet Jesus himself directly called the legalists out as lacking in faith while troubling over the minutiae of the laws. The third mess relates to our dedication (or lack of dedication) to peace. Rev. McLaren goes on to state that “careless preachers use the Bible as a club or sword to dominate or wound, they discredit the Bible in a way that no skeptic can.” Although all of these points could be debated into the early hours of the morning, I take his following perspective to be more challenging.

Rev. McLaren states one adage that we have all heard and many of us have experienced. A person can justify any position if they pick and choose verses from the text. The list of horrendous behaviors that were initially “supported” by Scripture is long, beginning with genocide and slavery, which I assume we all abhor. So, if this is true, what can we do with the individually contradictory verses?

Rev. McLaren begins with a warning. Turning Biblical interpretations over to TV and radio commentators who, by the way, agree with our own political views is not the way. We are children of the Reformation, the printing press and the Revolution. To retreat from personal study (and responsibility) is not the way. The following statement is where I most heartedly agree with Rev. McLaren:

“From all sides it becomes clear that the Bible, if it is truly inspired by God, wasn’t meant to end conversation and give the final word on controversies…it was inspired and intended to stimulate conversation, to keep people thinking and talking and arguing and seeking, across continents and centuries…(In this) it has succeeded and is succeeding in a truly remarkable way.”

As soon as Christians are no longer willing or able to talk about our faith in a personal way, as soon as Christians only talk to other Christians who agree with them, as soon as Christians retreat from the world into conclaves of self-righteousness, as soon as Christians follow any of these paths, we have turned away from both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, much less the faith traditions that founded the Disciples of Christ.

The next question: Is God violent?

Later