a useful analogy

[kayre]

I lead a small Bible study group. I am the youngest person in it by at least 10 years, and I'm counting down to Medicare. Like other groups of senior citizens I've taught, they lean quite liberal/progressive, but are all fearful, to varying degrees, of admitting that they no longer believe conservative Bible interpretations they've been taught. We're currently reading the minor prophets together, and every time we come to a passage that describes God acting in vengeful or punitive ways, the questions start. I generally explain the tension between believing that the Bible is *FACT*, so God must really be that way; or that the Bible is written by people, and expresses the understanding of God by the writer, or the people of that time.

This week I'm reading a book on the interaction of nutrition science and the food industry, so I shared this. There is a real science of nutrition, right? We know there are vitamins that are essential, and diseases that result from shortages of them. We know various types of food have various effects on the human body. In fact, there's a LOT of scientific fact; so mostly we have to rely on summaries from experts who know a lot about it, and even then they don't always agree, so it's just not easy to figure out.

But one thing we do know is that people who want to sell us pomegranates will share particular bits of science to try to convince us to buy more pomegranates. And if we really love chocolate, articles that say chocolate is good for us may be really appealing.

Same with Bible interpretation, theology, doctrine. It's big and complicated, and even the experts don't agree. But we still need to watch out for the folks who want to sell us something.

Comments

[gingicat]

Well said.

This is particularly true of parenting a disabled person - you have to sift through and find the things that will help when so much of it will clearly hurt.

[amaebi]

Great analogy.

The fear makes me so sad.

Back when I was in my first year of seminary and doing Disciple I so as to experience bible study while I was still as lay as possible, I was taken aback when group members reminisced. about a Revelation study they'd done with our pastor. They were so afraid that she gave each person a stone with the the words "And we're still here" (or something like that) on it. "But it's just a text," I managed to say only once.

[wordweaverlynn]

No, it's THE text. There is only one true text, and that's the KJV. Just as Jesus spoke it.

[kayre]

Not in this story. In all the classes I've led, not one person has been hung up on translation issues (though one person did just plain LIKE the KJV for its beauty).

[amaebi]

As with kayre, it wasn't a KJV issue or a literalism issue in this context: I was born, raised, and have always practiced as a leftie Christian. The favoured translation and the one used by the course materials was NRSV.

Of course, even people in leftie churches get weird about the Bible, and even when they weren't raised conservative. There's a lot of conservative hearsay passing as of-courses in the US. I have had to learn about the conservativism of not only righty US Christians but center and leftie ones. :(

[cellio]

That's a good analogy. So many people cherry-pick verses out of context to support the positions they want to advance, without apparent regard for the intent of a text they will nonetheless claim is from God. If they really believed the latter, I'd expect them to feel more trepidation in doing the former.

[hitchhiker]

that's a good analogy. i often think about how much (undue) emphasis catholicism lays on "sacrifice" and how much of it is due to thinking the most important fact about jesus is how he suffered and died, rather than what he had to say.