The Tao
There are reportedly 41,000 denominations of Christianity in the world
today, and you can bet that all of them think the others are reading the Bible
incorrectly.[1]
In fact, a common slander used by some Christians against other groups is the accusation
that they are practicing “Cafeteria Christianity.”[2]
As Conservapedia puts it, “This practice is particularly common among liberal
denominations, which cite only those passages which show Christ's forgiveness and
mercy, but not His justice, in order to deny the existence of Hell and the
necessity of faith for redemption… they selectively ignore passages which
refute evolution, condemn abortion, make statements about the role of women
that refute modern feminist dogmas, and conflict with other liberal views.”[3]
However, the reality is that even conservative Christians cherry pick the Bible.
In fact, the statement about abortion is one good example, since the Bible
isn’t very clear about abortion at all.[4]
In addition, while they may embrace the anti-gay message of Leviticus 20:13,
they rarely promote the idea of socially exiling couples who have sex during a
woman’s period as decreed in Leviticus 20:18. As one enlightened Christian
blogger put it “everyone cherry-picks the Bible: those who claim to be ‘staunch
believers in the Bible’ claiming its inerrancy and infallibility along with
those who view it as a historical and all-too-human text.”[5]
Scholarly Interpretation
Some Christians point to Bible scholarship as a means to understand
which parts are “inspired” and which are merely notions of flawed humans. However,
as logical as some approaches to biblical interpretation may be, they are still
subjective. Thus, Bible scholars can come to a variety of conclusions based on
their take as to what God wanted the verses to mean. In the 1800’s, Bible
scholars were used to prop up the pro-slavery arguments of the American South,
while Bible scholars were used to prop up the anti-slavery arguments of the
abolitionists.[6]
In modern times, Bible scholars rail against the abomination of gay marriage,
while Bible scholars rail against the evils of homophobia.[7]
Bible scholars may belong to any of the 41,000 denominations of Christianity as
well. Thus, Catholic scholars inherently disagree with Pentecostal scholars
just as Coptic scholars inherently disagree with Eastern Orthodox ones. Given
that scholars are the most knowledgeable regarding the context of Bible
passages, it is interesting they have so many different interpretations despite
this specialization.
Guided by God
I would argue that both scholars and non-scholarly theists believe in
the validity of Bible passages they feel are true. In fact, this is a
legitimate form of Biblical interpretation practiced by some Christians. As philosopher
Peter van Inwagen put it, “if you have submitted yourself to God’s will and if
you read—say—that God has commanded that the children be punished for the sins
of the fathers, your reaction will be along these lines: Yes, that’s what
seemed self-evidently true to the Hebrews once, that it was right to punish the
children for the sins of the fathers, and that that was therefore what God
would have told their ancestors to do; with God’s help, we now know better.”[8]
However, the problem with this God-guided method of Biblical interpretation is
that it has ultimately led to 41,000 different denominations of Christianity! It
has led to wars such as the Crusades and the multitude of European wars
following the onset of Protestantism.[9]
In the end, people believe in that which conforms to their preconceived ideas
of history, science, and morality. For example, studies have shown that
Christians tend to believe Jesus would be in favor of the social issues they
consider the most important.[10]
In other words, the Jesus of conservatives is quite different than the Jesus of
liberals.
Perspectives on the Old Testament
Many Christians consider the Old Testament irrelevant to Christianity.[11]
Jesus was fond of dismissing many backward rules required by the Pentateuch. In
addition, there are a number of passages such as "For Christ is the end of
the Law, that everyone who has faith may be justified” (Romans 10:4) and
"It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with
anything beyond the following requirements: You’re to abstain from food
sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from
sexual immorality” (Acts 15:28-29) which seem to imply that the Old Testament
laws no longer apply. Yet, despite these passages and many Christian claims to
the contrary, they do still use books such as Psalms for moral wisdom and
Genesis for their understanding of our origins, among other examples.[12]
Thus, it seems the Old Testament works when it’s in Christians’ favor, but not
when it promotes things like slavery and rape. Part of the reason for this may
be that the New Testament isn’t very clear about how much of the Old Testament
to ignore. For example, there are these passages:
- “For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:18-19)
- "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16)
- "Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the Holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God." (2 Peter 20-21)
I did provide a link to a list of these and other passages to a Christian
recently and she responded “I looked at the link you provided and the blogger
cherry-picked without consideration of the surrounding text. Or maybe [the]
website was a deliberate exercise in hypocrisy, cherry-picking which verses
support your bias, instead of looking at the entire chapter and the audience
and cultural/socio-economic frame of reference in which He was teaching.” However,
I doubt she would argue that “God is love” (1 John 4:16) is ever taken out of
context.
Conclusion
In the end, what does it matter if you don’t explain the greater
context of every seemingly unethical or contradictory Bible passage? The
authors of the Bible were supposedly writing on God’s behalf for all of
humanity past, present, and future. Why wouldn’t God inspire people more
consistently and clearly so that you wouldn’t need 10 scholars with PhD's to
figure out the context of every word? Is it because God works in mysterious
ways? Is it because man has free will and makes mistakes? Or is it simply more
plausible that beliefs change as cultures change, thus explaining not only the
negative but also the positive messages written in this entirely man-inspired
book?
Resources
Funny video satirizing Christian’s fervent need for context
What life would be like if you didn’t cherry pick: one man’s journey
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/16/aj-jacobs-ted_n_3762549.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
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