The next great task for the human race is to wean ourselves off literal interpretations of religion. We need to eradicate fundamentalism in all its forms.
Atheism is no help. Human beings are spiritual and look for meaning. Science holds answers but not "THE" answer we look for and long for. Family life and love -- continuity of relationships -- come closest for fulfilling our longing for purpose.
As I argue in my book Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism) the answer to fundamentalism, literal-minded religion and all the horror and absurdity they create is to work on the evolution of religion: reject false certainties rooted in myth and embrace myth as a window into the unknowable.
Clearly the issue for any sane Christian believer (or any believer in not just religion but any human construct, including science) is how to decide what parts of the moral teaching of the Bible (or Koran, or scientific theory) to edit or discard and what to live by.
Those of us who have no problem with celebrating the fact that some people are created gay, or that other people live with a girlfriend or boyfriend because marriage isn't always the best way to relate to a lover, have drawn an admittedly arbitrary circle of what is acceptable to them a bit wider than other believers have.
But the truth is no one (not even the dourest Reconstructionist Christian or Orthodox Jew) takes everything any religion teaches completely seriously, let alone practices it faithfully.
The truth is that interpreting religion is just that: interpreting. All that means is that common sense and compassion are the filters through which we look at religion, as we do with all of life. There is such a thing as freedom of conscience and the right to think!
In that sense everyone is a "liberal" and those who pretend they are consistent to their stated creeds are liars.
The big "Moral Teachings" fundamentalists love so much because they provide a stick with which religious bullies may beat their fellow human beings into submission, are meaningless. If these same anti-gay or anti-abortion advocates actually took their Bibles literally they would be weighing people at their church door to check for gluttony and excommunicating half the parish for being overweight. As it says in Philippians (3:18-19); "For many... walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things."
Well, there goes the whole of American God-is-their-belly porkers-for-Jesus evangelicalism with its consumer-oriented free enterprise "ethic" and overeating!
Or what of Romans 13:13: "Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy." In this verse orgies and quarreling are denounced as equally evil.
So that's it folks: since the very existence of competing seminaries is in its essence a quarrel about theology, therefore all theologians that oppose the views of other theologians have been dismissed by Paul as working against God's will in the same way that participants in orgies are denounced. So let's pick on quarreling theologians and not on gays!
Or maybe the best thing is to not single out anyone. How many fundamentalist Southern Baptists strive to apply this verse literally to their daily lives? "If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity."
Admit it: the Bible is nuts in many places. Who follows this stuff? No one! So why stick it to people for choosing to not follow homophobic nonsense?
So why do do fundamentalist take verses on gay love any more seriously than on cutting off that woman's hand? I never met an Orthodox Jew who did that either, for all their talk about strict adherence to the Scriptures.
And here's a verse you don't hear preached on much these days: "Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet, and she said, "You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.'" (Exodus 4:24-25)
Now THAT'S a wedding gift worthy of some real "family values!"
We're morally evolving as a species and each new stage is always in tension with the prior stage. For instance, how would even the strictest of churches apply this teaching to one of their parishioners who had just had a bad car accident? "No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 23:1)
My proposal is this: To be true to the heart of the gospel message -- redemption through selflessness, hope, justice and love -- necessitates a new and fearless repudiation of parts of the same book (and tradition) that also bring us a message of hate.
To find the spiritual truth that is hidden within the Bible it must be mentally "edited" by people of goodwill who are informed by the spiritual truth we carry within our evolving ethical selves.
The loyalty of those who wish to live as Christians (as opposed to those who wish to force others to be like them by using Christianity as a weapon), must shift from fidelity to the Bible (or any other text) to seeking the life-affirming message of transcendence buried within the madness, ignorance and fear that we discover not just in the darker portions of all "sacred" texts, but in every human heart.
Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His new book is Patience With God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism)
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The Eight Rules of Bible Interpretation
Literary Forms and Biblical Interpretation - Answers in Genesis
Help with what for whom?
"Human beings are spiritual and look for meaning."
I disagree with your association here. I'm a human being. I am not spiritual, and I search for meaning. The search for meaning is not inherently spiritual.
"Science holds answers but not "THE" answer we look for and long for."
Depends on the question, doesn't it? Of greater interest is that your article is a tacit admission that religion doesn't provide these answers, either.
Even if you aren't an athiest yourself, it's pretty obvious that not everybody is "spiritual" and that not everybody thinks religion is the only viable way to seek meaning.
Literalists only say this in theory and can't do it in practice, hence their insistence on condemning gays, for instance. How do you teach this? Stop making the Bible or religious creeds the final Word and teach people principles [love, compassion, reason, consistency, etc.) rather than rules and regulations.
Yes, we all still wont' see eye to eye but at least we'll be more respectful and less judgmental of each other.
Fundys [I love that word because the first three letters spell FUN] don't actually condemn anything. We point out Scripture's condemnation of destructive, sinful behavior such as homosexuality, adultery, premarital sex, bestiality, and any other biblically immoral behavior. Not because we are holier than thou, but because sin always damages your relationship with God and/or your relationship with others. Sin is frequently self-destructive. If your a glutton your going to get big as a house and have some serious health side effects. If you are a practicing homosexual, your lifespan on average is 13 years shorter than a pack a day smoker.
If you want to live a sinful lifestyle, that's your choice; but don't abuse Jesus, the Bible, or fundys for simply wanting a better life for you.
How right you are. Actually while Jesus did show compassion and consideration towards people he encountered, he never let them "pass" on sin. He always recognized sin, he always pointed out sin, he always condemned ALL sin. The "law" was given by God to show man that he could NEVER be righteous and holy based on his efforts alone. The Law is a mirror of the failings of the human soul. With honest reflection a person who sees this failure will also see a need for a payment for that failure. Then, they will see that Christ is that payment.
What seems to gall most posters to this site is they don't want to be called out for creating their own self-styled God. They conveniently cut and paste the parts of God's perfect revelation to fashion something they will be comfortable with. Something that won't cause them to much trouble. Something that is 'easy to do.' The sad and tragic end to all this "self-created god" nonsense is when they stand before the true, holy and pure God and have to give account for their actions. This is not my OPINION... It is GOD's WORD
No doubt, if the US was traditionally populated primarily by Muslims, these boards would be full of people condemning the evils of Islam, but very open the Christian religion of peace those guys over there practice.
"no-nothing"
Oh the irony. I think you meant, "know-nothing", but no and know do not have the same meaning.
"About 75% of the blogs here are to that effect"
Far better than 100% of discourse that fails to question the horrible things the Bible says. Like these jewels:
"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but to be under obedience, as also saith the law." 1 Corinthians 14:34
1.) Women belong to you. "Your" is a possessive pronoun, and the people to whom this is told (men) have authority to instruct them what to do.
2.) Women should not speak, but remain silent in obedience. This is a far separate category than that for men. In fact, it institutionalizes oppression of women and their thoughts.
RE: the scripture you quote about women, here is what is going on with that.
In those times women sat in church meetings and called out questions---yelled them out-- it disrupted the meetings, like someone interupting the pastor's sermon. So they were told to hold their questions until they got home and ask their husbands about it.
Men are in a postion of final authority in Christian homes. The captian of ship has final decision making over the second in command and crew--the captain of an athletic team does too, etc. Humans understand someone has to have 'final say' when two people (or more) hold a different idea about a matter. So God gave that position to the husband. But the wife if free to speak her mind to him and can go direct to God in prayer and ask His help with a stupid/stubborn husband-she's not without recourse. God hears her. Husbands are commanded to love their wives, treat them as well as they care for their own body--non-abusively, and "DO NOT BE HARSH WITH THEM".
I haven't failed to 'question' (seek understanding)-- but you have.
Where there's a religious idea that can be interpreted fundamentally, there will be fundamentalists willing to do so. I don't know how we can eradicate fundamentalism without destroying anything that contains a fundamental message.
Sad but true.
This is part why I find it so frustrating (as stated in a previoius comment) that Schaeffer just casually dismisses atheism at the outset.
If God does not exist, there is nothing to say about God. I will believe atheists are really atheists when they stop chattering on and on about God and religion.
I live in Chicago.
You either believe what your "word of God" book tells you or you don't. Why would you half-ass it?
Your magic book is either from God, in which case you should be a fundamentalist and follow it to the letter, because it's God we're talking about, or you should totally dismiss it.
This business of secularizing religion to make it more PC and palatable has to go. If a religion is stupid, and stupid things of its followers, we should call it out, and call it's stupid followers what they are: stupid.
Religions are not there to be "feel-good" institutions. They profess to inform us about the metaphysical truths of the universe. If you find that yours doesn't live up, toss it to the side, don't half-ass it and make it your personal religion to yourself.
Good advice, HerrMonk. Here are the 3 most stupid (and damaging) things often found in American Christianity today.
1. Being anti-science, and especially anti-evolution. The evidence is overwhelming, all species on earth are on a tree of common ancestry. This is exactly as Charles Darwin explained, and modern DNA evidence makes the case 100 times stronger than Darwin could ever imagine. Doubting evolution is like doubting Galileo's system of planitary orbits. It is a mistake, and in the 21st century it is just plain dumb.
2. End times, Left Behind, Rapture beliefs. These beliefs cause religious people to support disgusting things. No good can ever come of such a thing.
3. Selling out to the party of the rich. Their lockstep voting block have led to great damage to the nation, and also to the world. You can't vote for Bush and then claim God.
There is a real world out there that could profit from your energy. Nobody needs your 'all or nothing at all' juvenile and delusional take on Sunday sermons and religion.
Atheists are a hoot. They don't know a damn thing about the sociological function of religion or God or theology, but that is all they want to talk about. What a hoot.
Talk about what you know: atheism. If God does not exist, there is nothing to say about God. The moment you discuss God with a True Believer Religionist, you have lost the argument. Get a better argument.
Find a club that doesn't pretend to have all the answers to feel your social needs.
I'm not debating God with you. We're talking religion. You could have a religion with no God, Atheism is very much a religion, and nearly always fundamentalist: not too many creative interpretations of how there can be no God.
There's nothing juvenile about insisting that you make judgments and decisions about what you know and don't know, about what you believe or don't believe. We've become a society where no one knows what they think anyone, and no one has any convictions. People don't think anything out, or know why they think what they do. One idea is just as good as another, one truth just as good as another, one morality is just as good as another... especially if they serve tasty snakes at the bake sale after Church, and can handle carpool on Tuesdays.
Hash out some convictions and stand by them. Justify them to yourself. Then continually challenge them to see if they stand the test of time. But don't fall into trap of moral and spiritual relativism.
Part One: Mostly irrelevant rhetoric. I can produce umpteen such articles by haters of Islam in the West, (counterparts of Yemeni clerics) to assert that there is an organised conspiracy in order to create an effective clash of civilization. A few fanatic clerics do not represent the main stream.
Again and again western observers have sought to construct the character of Islam by focussing on the most extreme and repressive practices of Muslim states (there are no Islamic states in the world though there are Islamic communities that live by Islam, there are no Christian States but Christian communities who live by teachings of Jesus PBUH) or organisations like Al-Qaeda. They disregard all other factors.
If we were to adopt the same attitude towards Western History,then it would undoubtedly be necessary to regard Stalin, who was educated in a seminary, as the creator of Christian regime, and Hitler( our friend joey gives a perverted cock and bull story) who was brought up as a Roman Catholic, as a Christian statesman. The fact that both Stalin and Hitler persecuted those Christians who opposed their regimes merely serves to strengthen the analogy. For in recent years the Muslim rulers (tyrants such as Saddam Hussein, Husni Mubaruk, and Saudi Kings) have themselves persecuted the many faithful Muslims who have opposed them. 224
Western observers are reluctant to acknowledge such facts and in general quite unwilling to recognise that Islam, like any other ancient faith, is profoundly heterogeneous.
Hitler also believed god sent him to wipe out the jews, and that in time it would be thought that Jesus himself did it.
Takes two to tange Islam isn't perfect nobody is. In all factuality the Bible has killed more people than any other religion. For centuries, its like a sickness, Spanish Inquisition, The wars between the Catholics and the Protestants. The eradication of the "evil jew" in the middle ages, who they believe caused the plague.
Fundamental Islam, Judaism and Christianity are both responsible for all this hate and war. Senseless violence over petty beliefs founded on myth. Its gone on way to long the change is coming.
But you will not hear of Christian or Jewish terrorists. All acts of violence are put together and wrapped up in the package of ‘Islamic terrorism’.
The conduct of adherents of every religion varies from country to country, from sect to sect, from age to age and from person to person. How very different is the conduct of Jesus’s disciples from those in Pinochet’s Chile, or in South Africa, who claim to uphold Christian values.
Which is to represent Christianity? Are we to describe the First and Second World wars, in which millions of people lost their lives as Christian wars against humanity?
Any act of war in a Muslim country is perceived in the West as the extension of ‘Islamic terrorism’ but in any other country such an act is seen as a political dispute( Hindus fighting for a separate Tamil Elam in Sri Lanka).
Why must such dual standard of justice prevail? One really begins to wonder if there is an undercurrent of hatred for Islam beneath the apparently calm surface of Christian civilization. Is it perhaps a hangover from centuries of Crusades against Muslim powers, or is the old wine of secularists venom served in new goblets.