Well…I’ve just been mocked because of my lack of blogging recently. Seriously, I’ve been freaking tired. First, I’ve been working on a website for a local organization, cutting speech pieces, grading a slew of student work from 2nd quarter, prepping for 3rd quarter (which started Tuesday with all new students…whew!). To top it all of, I got a nasty cold on Monday. My throat kills and my head has one of those crazy congesty-runny things going on. Good time to get sick. I had to cancel my Jr. High girlz Bible study Tuesday night because I couldn’t function properly, so I came home and went to bed. I still have a ton of curriculum to finish and I’m supposed to teach our staff how to use the new computer system at a workshop tomorrow. On top of that, the screen on my computer is totally broken so it either takes me three times as long to do my work (because I can’t seen the screen and have to keep moving windows around). Or, I have to plug for time on Josh’s computer, which in and of itself should explain my lack of blogging. Some other interesting news has been happening as well, which I’ll blog about later.
I’ve been really interested in how people mess with the Bible to get it to “say” what they want to believe. Not a lot of Christians are looking for truth anymore…but are very often explaining away things that are socially taboo so they don’t have to look like an evil Christian. I had a friend try and tell me that homosexuality is okay because “in the Bible, the homosexuals God destroyed were actually destroyed because of pedophilia and group orgys…not because they were homosexual” and because “Soddom and Gommorah is just a metaphor” and because “the Old Testament is no longer relevant today.” When I questioned him about passages in the New Testament that seem to clearly say that homosexuality is a sin, his response was, “Well, aren’t we all sinners? Why should we pick on them?” Which eventually narrowed down to, “It’s just offensive that you would think homosexuality is wrong.” Because, I’m always so worried about offending people. Maybe I should just trade my salvation and awesome relationship with God so I can be less offensive.
The funny thing is that a lot of people who try to argue away the Bible with me argue with philosophies or studies they read in the media…but never with the Bible itself. The conversation usually ends when I ask them to show me in the Bible where it says that something is okay. I usually don’t hear back from them after that. That kind of sucks because I’d be interested to hear what they actually find.
Anyway, stuff like this really disturbs me. Aren’t we all in search of the truth? Are we so proud that we can’t admit when God is right? Are we so smart that we can deem a study by the New York Times to be more relevant than the word of God?
Steph Lewis's Blog
People who question the validity of the Old Testament, especially Christians, should then wonder why it’s quoted from by everyone, and frequently (including Jesus himself!) in the New Testament. The Old Testament is the foundation of the New, and its ideas are prevalent everywhere in our culture. Yancey says pretty much the same things I’ve been thinking since jr. high (I really love the OT), but The Bible Jesus Read is a great read for those of us who don’t like the OT, think it’s not relevant, etc.
The other problem is that Christians suffer a lot of guilt. Fellow followers have screwed up in the past, and feel the need to explain or make up for it. Part of me applauds the Pope for apologizing for the Church’s big screwups in the pasts, but some take that too far: “We screwed up earlier, so I need to take it easy and not force this.” Is a feeling many have. As for homosexuality and standing out against other sins, we have the above problems, and the bandwagon effect, I believe.
Believing in something strongly means you shouldn’t compromise your beliefs in it, but these can be held without being “bad,” and I mean bad from God’s perspective. I think things like the Crusades where conversion was forced on others, etc. is bad, but standing up for the beliefs of Christianity not only isn’t bad, but encouraged.
Gah, you opened a flood gate, but there’s my two cents. I’ll stop now before this goes for 3 random pages.
Darnitall. I’ve wanted to read The Bible Jesus Read, but I actually wanted it on audiotape. The stupid iTunes music store currently isn’t letting me download things for some stupid reason I can’t figure out. Hmmm…
I think this kind of thing makes me frustrated by the Grace movement in the Church. I think the concept of grace is incredible an is an absolute part of our relationship with God. We all fall short of glory of God…but His Grace is what allows us to reach it. So, I’m not knocking grace by any means. I think it is awesome. The issue I have is that so many people are letting the pendulum swing the other direction by allowing themselves to sin and by allowing others to sin (see the end of Romans Ch. 1). The argument I’ve been getting from many people (and when I say many, I mean more than 10 Christians within the past three months) is that it’s not right to encourage others not to sin or support laws that uphold Christian morality…they say that we are all such sinners that, what’s the point of even trying? But Paul also said that we should not go on sinning so that grace may increase (Romans 6).
Definitely. Christianity, as is much of life, is a matter of balance. We cannot and should not be overly concerned about the plank in our neighbor’s eye, or the speck in our own. However, that does not mean that was stop having standards and applying them to our own life, and thinking that’s a way that others should live as well.
I’m actually rather concerned about this, and I may be able to tie this in from one of Tolkien’s poems about Aragorn (just follow along, please):
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
I’m rather concerned that if Christians continue this trend of not standing up for the faith, they’re burning those deep roots, and destroying that which has given them their only strength over the past two centuries (see, I told you it tied in: poetry and writing can say it so well, I had to throw that in).
Great discussion. I’ll join in when I have a little more time. -Eddie
Sweet poem. Tolkien is awesome.
OK, I said I would say more, but it seems the conversation has moved to blooming geeks. That’s ok, it’ll come up again.
Oh! And yes, Neal. The poem is of a sweet nature and reminds me of Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay,”
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Similar imagery, different meanings, nevertheless the two poems are interesting commentary to one another. Hmmmmmmmm…