Bible Study

I find it astonishing how our minds can twist simple facts to suit our prejudices.  “Bible study” comes to mind in this respect. 

Reading a document is one thing.  Studying a document is entirely another thing.  For me, reading the Bible is not studying it. 

Study is a search for truth, and in searching for truth the student who has any degree of integrity will examine any and all sources of information available and being honest about her/his personal inclinations. 

But nobody can do that entirely.  Bible study involves bringing up issues of language, history, culture, and the knowledge and opinions of today’s scholars and their predecessors from centuries before.  That may be why a lot of people are put off from even reading the Bible.  Yes, there are good faith-building stories there, and comfort, encouragement, even direction; but there are also some zingers to one’s faith and there are ancient cultural mores that do not conform to the spirit in Jesus’ teaching.  Not a lot of us want to struggle with such a mixture.  That dusty book on the shelf is dusty for a number of reasons. 

Take the story of Sodom for instance.  That was God’s judgment on homosexuality, correct?  Not.  We certainly hear plenty of that interpretation from Americanized Christianity, but wait… Would the interpretation of another writer from the Bible itself carry any authority?  It should, but nobody seems to pay attention to the prophet Ezekiel who, in condemning Jerusalem in the 16^th chapter says, “The crime of your sister Sodom was pride, gluttony, calm complacency… they never helped the poor and needy; they were proud, and engaged in loathsome practices before me, and so I swept them away as you have seen.”(Jerusalem Bible)  “Loathsome practices” is listed as a repeat, for emphasis, on the social injustices of the city.  Homosexuality is not even mentioned, nor was it even known as a “condition” by that Biblical author.  And yet, our homophobic culture today actually uses “Sodomy” as a legal term to describe sexual practices that offend some people.  I am so delighted to see the credibility of this mindset slowly melting away.  And I don’t think it happened as a result of “Bible study” by Americans.  It has more spiritual roots. 

This may hurt our Christian pride, but people of all religions, and people with no religion, all normally have a sense of justice.  The atheistic communist, the pagan, countless others, all possess that same kind of sight.  It would seem that Americans, whatever their spirituality, have come to see the illogic and intrinsic wrongness in our homophobic culture and are moving to correct the problem, sometimes in direct and public opposition to their own churches’ policies. 

I’m certainly not saying that the Bible has no value.  I’m just saying that we must be aware of a greater source. We should likewise be aware that our congregations and religious institutions have similar status.  Ideally they are places of both mutual support and challenge and whose real life comes from the spirit of Christ.  There’s more to do.  Perhaps next on the list should be: Stewardship of God’s Creation, and Stopping the War on the Poor. 

There’s hope after all.  To paraphrase more than one great person of faith, “Without God, we can’t; and God, without us, won’t.”  (attributed to Nelson Mandela, Augustine of Hippo, Desmond Tutu, and others in various forms)