"Because the Bible says" is not good enough.

This week my New Testament Professor made a point I could not go by without sharing and expanding on. We were talking about the Gospel of Matthew and shared how interesting he found the narrative of Jesus' temptation. He pointed out that the Satan character in the narrative tempts Jesus using scripture and Jesus responds with other scripture. To say the Bible says one thing is entirely incorrect because the fact is that the bible says a lot of things and they often contradict themselves.

That being the case why do people continue to say I believe x simply because the Bible says? The answer is that we don't want to take responsibility for our own beliefs. Any reading of the bible necessarily is an interpretation because the Bible does not have one single monolithic theology or viewpoint, on top of that not only is the reader interpreting but if you are not reading in the original language you are at the mercy of the interpretation of the interpreter. And even if you do speak Greek and Hebrew the texts that exist are a compilation of ancient manuscripts which have textual variants within them so even in the original language you are at the mercy of the interpretation of textual critics.

I'm not saying that the scripture is not important, because I think the scripture is incredibly important but what I'm saying is that we can not use the scripture as a shield that relieves us from responsibility for our actions and beliefs. If our answer is that we believe something only because the bible says, I don't think we are taking our belief or the bible seriously. We are also dangerously relieving ourselves from the responsibility of the implications and ends that such beliefs bring about. Much evil has and continues to be justified in this way.

We must take responsibility for ourselves. We must examine our believes using our experience, reason and in conversation with what the tradition has said (this does not necessarily mean agreeing with the tradition but at least taking it into account). If our faith is not examined, thought about, and wrestled with it is no faith at all. And I believe that the authority of scripture only comes when we wrestle with it and struggle with it. We must be a part of the scripture making process.

I hope not to stand behind bible and use it as a shield. I hope to have an examined, thinking faith. I hope that when I fail in these things than I can recognize it.

A Much Deserved Thank You!!!

To all my PSR Friends,

You all deserve a big thank you. As many of you know I deal with issues of anxiety and depression. Two weeks ago I went through I really bad week where I let my anxiety and panic attacks get the better of me. It is not the first time it has happened, and though I hope it is the last I know it will probably not be the last. In the past when I have struggled with this issues I have felt terribly alone and it has only made me want to withdraw more. But this time I experienced something I have always longed for but had long quit believing would ever happen. I had people see that I was struggling, even though if I'm honest I was trying to hide it. You recognized my pain, and asked me how I was doing. You asked me not in the dismissive way I'm used to but in a way that invited me to be open, you cared enough about me to allow me to be vulnerable and tell you what was really going on. You listened to me and made me feel worthwhile. I can not express how meaningful this is to me. I could not say how thankful I am to all of you and how much all of you mean to me. Thank you!

With all my love,

Chris

Crying Out

Quiet...
There you are...
I feel you but you speak not...
or do you?
Its so hard to tell.
I know you and I don't.
You're right here...
or maybe you're too far...
even to touch.
Help me!!!
I need to understand...
or maybe I don't.

When Fear Wins America Loses

I have a lot I could write about in the midterm elections and there are no two ways around this I am disturbed by a number of things that happened yesterday. Sadly can not get to everything I would want to in just this blog but I do want to hit on a couple of things.

I think at the heart of what we saw happen last night was based on fear. An great example of this is Oklahoma which felt it was necessary to have a ballot measure that banded Sharia Law. I have spent a lot of the morning trying to research why this would be an issue in Oklahoma, not surprisingly I could not find a single example of Sharia being used in that state. So where does this kind of ballot measure come from? The answer is fear, fear of the "other" which in our current culture is Islam. This ballet measure in my opinion is a reaction not to any real threat but rather to fear of a people and a religion that many American's do not understand.

This is not the only vote that was driven by fear. In Iowa 3 state Supreme Court Justices were removed from the court because the in a unanimous decision the court made that denying LGBT people the right to marry was against the Iowa Constitution. I seriously doubt that those who voted against these judges looked at any other cases that these individuals presided over. Obviously I am a supporter of marriage rights, but even if you have a problem with LGBT people getting married is their really any harm that can be done to you by them being married, or visiting the person they love in the hospital, or being able to be on each others health insurance? The only answer I see to this question is no. The heart of this measure was reacting against judges who allowed something that was feared because it is understood.

In Arizona the people voted to end the state's affirmative action programs. This vote seems to me to be a clear example of white privilege perpetuating itself. Reading the arguments to end these programs I see fear, fear that you may not get a job and someone else may. When we realize there is a great disparity in the jobless rate for African Americans vs that of white Americans we can see that there are reasons that programs like affirmative action are rightfully in place.

If all that was no bad enough, but Rand Paul was elected to Congress of the United States. It is deeply troubling because this is a man who said that he disagreed with Article II the Civil Right Act of 1964 which prevents private businesses from discriminating based on race. I understand people saying the wrong thing during a race but he not only said this but defended it. Frankly, there is no excuse for this position he held and defended and I think it brings into serious question his ability to hold any position of power.

In the end I recognize that though I think those who voted these things into being made the wrong decisions, I have to recognize their right to vote the way they did. But I have to say that I believe that fear motivated a lot of those votes. Yes, we live in uncertain times, but if we continue to act out of fear it is the country that loses. It is fear that caused the Salem Witch Trials, fear that caused the Red Scare, and fear that caused us go into Iraq which cost many American Service Women and Men their lives.

We need to have a rational conversation in this country. One that does not comprise of soundbites. One that will not sell papers or drive ratings but one that will help us to rediscover our mutual purpose. I do truly believe we have a mutual purpose. We will not always agree, but we can disagree in a better way. We can leave the fear behind, we can recognize the racism, sexism, hetrosexism and privilege that exist in our country and we can do something about it.

God help us all.