Why Does Questioning the Bible Make People So Nervous and Defensive?
If you wish to see the good, the bad and the ugly side of people of faith, just question the faith. I was a pastor soaking in Christianity and the Bible for three decades. I heard, read and studied all the plain and simple truth in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I can tell you the truth is neither plain nor simple and rather liked Paul's description of it all as being "the present truth." At least calling truth something that is currently understood gives some wiggle room for those times which shall come to grow a bit in the grace and knowledge that most Christians think they are open minded enough to really do. Most I know grow neither in grace, unless they attach a few dozen laws that you must keep to be one of the good people, nor knowledge which seems to scare the bejesus out of them when they really run up against it.By far, the writings I have done that have proven to be the most popular for the open minded and enraging for those who enjoy that frame of mind a bit less, have been on Questions Your Pastor Will Hate. Many appreciate the questions and admit that they too have had the same questions as they sincerely study the text of the Bible stories and accounts of varied topics. These are the people who see the politics behind the texts. They admit that James and Paul really did bash heads and Peter was bashed by Luke and John as one who was totally unworthy of any authority in the church. Judas had betrayed Jesus and Peter had denied him, so that's pretty much the end of them in the eyes of John, Luke and Paul.
The story of Annias and Sapphira in Acts 5 is not a story about Peter killing two church members for not coughing up all the money they had "pledged" to the church. It is a spoof that the readers of Luke and Paul's community would understand of the buffoon Peter who, like the two church members who said they would give something to the church and didn't, said he'd never leave Jesus and fled. Peter who said he'd do one thing and did another is now punishing a couple who said they'd do one thing and did another. It was hilarious and a poke at Peter the Pathetic according to Luke and Paul. John mentions Peter three times in his Gospel and each time sandwiches Peter stories between two comments about Judas. The point is not missed on the original audience as is the story of Peter being forgiven three times by Jesus tacked on to the end of John's Gospel to show Peter is just as able to be forgiven as anyone else. (Side note: A really fascinating possibility is that the 21st chapter of John is the Missing ending of the pro-Peter Gospel of Mark. Mark is known to have no good ending to the Jesus story. It's ending has been added to make up for the bummer ending at Mark 16:8. John, on the other hand, has two obvious endings in chapter 20, the real ending and chapter 21, the forgive Peter ending.)
At any rate, to question the story is to run great risk of abuse at the hands of the faithful who need the stories to be literally true as they learned in Sunday School and that all the characters of the New Testament Church loved each other in Jesus and got along famously in the faith. That is very far from reality, but don't question it.
I can't tell you how many, while not near as many as those who appreciate the inquiry, take the time to write and remind me I will change my mind when I am frying in the fires of Hell in the judgment. No one has bothered to answer one question posed, but they just know I should go to hell for asking it. Some who write are subtle in their warnings to me. Some sound like a human form of God who will warn me to "gird up my loins" (my loins are just fine) and get ready to answer, but that's where it ends. I guess they feel God himself is about to break out upon me for asking questions about the faith. So far so good. Some talk to me like I imagine Moses talked to the Children of Israel when he was really angry at them in God's name. Some are not so subtle as one reminded me that "Dennis, words can get you killed." Well the history of religion that does not appreciate questions proves that!
Is it wrong to notice the inconsistencies, errors, goofs, bad science, poor examples, contradictions, animosities, politic and real history of the Bible? Depends who you ask. Those who believe that none of those things exist in the Holy Book would shout "yes!" In my view, the answer is "no it is not." Why is it OK and even something one should demand of their honest selves? Because ideas have consequences. Because the stories and ideas expressed in the texts are used to control people in various life circumstances. Because some use the mythologies of the Bible to make up literally real laws that effect women and children, and generally not in a good way. Because many are kept in fear, guilt and life long shame being reminded way too often that they, as a human, are worthless without divine intervention. Being born right the first time, as I have said in the past, is a truth that is kept far from their consciousness.
It is always right to ask questions about that which seems like it deserves to have a question asked. If you can't imagine Joshua raising his hands and stopping the earth from rotating without planet wide consequences...just ask your Pastor how can that be. Of course be ready to hear, "with God all things are possible," which is not what you asked. If you can't picture penguins and polar bears ambling down to the middle east to get on the Ark, just ask your Pastor about that. If you wonder where dinosaurs or Homo Erectus fit in, just ask your Pastor. The answer might be ill informed, but it's ok to ask.
If you notice that Paul never quotes Jesus, yet gets to write most of the NT heavy meaning of Jesus, just ask. If you notice that Paul thinks Peter, James and John, the disciples of Jesus don't seem to have anything Paul needs to learn from them and he learns nothing from them, and think that's kinda strange...just ask. If you notice the Birth or Resurrection of stories as written in the Gospels don't match very well and seem contradictory, just ask. If you say "they seem to be contradictory," be prepared to have the word "seem" jumped upon, but you still have the right to ask. I'm not saying you'll get a good or correct answer. You might, but probably not. But you have the right to ask. And you certainly have the right to notice the many problems in the Bible if you know the Bible well enough to notice in the first place.
One thing is for sure. If you are a genuine seeker and you truly notice that the Bible has some real problems with what we truly know today about many topics and even within itself in the form of many contradictions and editing done by one to correct the problems of the other, it's ok to ask. A real seeker cannot not notice what they notice. You can't go back to the lame apologetics that many offer to explain away the problem as if there is no problem. You can't unsee what you do see. You can't unring a bell. Oh..you also have the right to expect not to be penalized for asking in the first place. Just don't count on it.
Sometimes it's a point of view.
ReplyDeleteFor example, if we count Acts 20:35, then the Apostle Paul did directly quote Jesus.
But there's also a different point of view where Paul never quoted Christ.
Paul knew nothing of the Gospels that's for sure as they were written after his death. His writings were actually first.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered if he was the important and best of the best pharisee, in Jerusalem, he bragged about being, why did none of the Gospel writers ever hear of him. You'd think he'd be in the midst of the fray in every gospel, but nothing.
Some question Paul's truth telling at times :)
There were dozens of times in his writings where it would have been to his advantage to quote Jesus to back himself up, but he didn't. Like his "holy spirit will moan, and peep" when we don't know how to pray. Ummm, the Lord's prayer comes to mind..ha. He never heard of it it seems
Long story I guess.
Dennis
(Still have login issues)
Our Wednesday night Bible Studies allowed for a Question & Answer period. The deacons would collect our written questions and then the minister would go through them, deciding which ones he wanted to answer.
ReplyDeleteI had tons of questions, but decided rather than bombard the mminister all at once, I would submit 2 or 3 each Bible Study. He may have answered one or two over a six month period, but that was it. It was not uncommon that he would silently read the questions in front of the congregation, then toss them to the side without responding. Or he would say, "I'll answer this one privately," or "this one involves too much time to cover in a bible study," or "I'll answer this one next week." But he never did.
Interestingly, this guy is one of the new COGawa leaders. Most of us felt that when the church split in the 1990's, he would make a good snake oil salesman if he lost his job and had to find work in the real world.
I wonder if he's the same one that we had in our area. Sounds like the same asshole.
ReplyDeleteNortheast?
ReplyDeleteHouston East
ReplyDeleteBingo !!
ReplyDeleteAnd his successor, too. His successor would even excuse himself and quickly take off if you asked a pointed question that he didn't know how to answer.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed to be a pattern among the ministers we had in our area. Any questions that were too difficult, they simply avoided. None of them were even remotely biblical scholars. There was only ONE answer or explanation. It never occurred to any of these guys that there were other ways of looking at something, or more than one possible explanation.
But then, everything in the WCG was that way. Sometimes I would sit there and think that my ears were going to pop. Did he really just say that ???
I hated the idea of a superior deity when I left religionism.
ReplyDeleteTime passed. Events occurred. I studied philosophies and observed their consequences. Gradually, I returned to a concept of God that makes sense to me currently.
I was told by priests, pastors, gurus, and shaman that questioning one's direction in faith and wrestling with God is advancement in one's faith.
We will see.
WCG ministers answered questions in the same way Fundamentalist baptists types do here. It's all scripted and if they are faced with a discrepency, it always just appears to be one. Or they say, "and that is exactly why we know...." they turn the darn thing around on you!!!!
ReplyDeleteBob Jones University is reputed to have an excellent program in many areas etc, and they teach much about theology and such but in the end, it is all organizational spiel. They forbid the students access to the internet on the campus and for all the good they offer, they still teach theology from the "if you see errors, they aren't errors and if you know anything biblical we haven't told you, you dont know it. One student told me "i just believe what they tell me...'
argh....
I would love to be sitting in a bible study with GTA as in the past taking questions knowing what to ask what I know now..ha.
Dennis
Ask candid questions;
ReplyDeleteGet canned answers.
"Any questions that were too difficult, they simply avoided."
ReplyDeleteThe ministry of the WWCG reminds me of the ham fisted brawlers that joined the Nazi party at its inception and rose through the ranks to be ham fisted brawlers with responsibilities that they were not qualified to properly handle. So it was 1) adherence to the party and to The Fuhrer, 2) covering their arses, and 3) beating the citizenry into submitting to the party and the Fuhrer in order to be assured of carrying out #2.
The more I read of Nazi Germany, the more parallels I find between the motivations, and subsequent mindset, of Nazi bureaucrats and WWCG ministers.
Paul Ray