I kid. We all know Jesus was born in the most humble of beginnings. He was perceived to be a bastard child, born into a shed full and animals and placed in their troth. Not quite the entrance we would anticipate for the Messiah!
I think there is a great lesson there. The bible (at least today's translations) talks about kingdoms and lords and images of God that are associated with royalty, wealth and power. When God had a chance to demonstrate what was truly important on earth, the result was the life of Jesus.
It was important for Jesus to be born into the margins. He later identified and sympathized with so many people who the world had decided to cast out.
I've always had the inclination that if I want to make a truly positive mark on the world, I need to have the resources that will allow me to have the greatest impact. Look at Jesus, though. Look at Ghandi...Mother Theresa... The lives that were the most dynamic in a positive way, were lead by those with nothing of the world.
If I'm honest with myself, I know that I want to have the resources that will make my life comfortable (and probably even enjoyable), while I do good. I don't need all the things I have to live out my fullest life...not by a long shot.
I am wasteful, and I put too much emphasis on material items. I'm definitely going to explore this in greater detail, but the lesson I'm learning today is that simplicity and humility are keys to living the life I believe I should.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Who is this Abraham?
I want to start my studies of the teachings of Jesus, but I think it's important to look at a little background first. After all, Matthew 1 starts with a genealogy tracing Jesus back to Abraham. Why is this so important, that it's the opener for the New Testament?
What's the deal with Abraham anyway? Christianity, Judaism and Islam are all traced back to him. Why him?
Abraham was a descendant of Noah, and a descendant of Adam...naturally...
In Genesis 12, God promises Abraham (then Abram) that he will make him into a great nation, showered with blessings, but he needs to leave his family and country. God said he'd bless Abraham and his people, and if anyone cursed them, God would curse them back. (Old Testament God seemed to have a different approach than New Testament God.)
There are a series of strange happenings, such as Abraham's wife Sarah (then Sarai) convincing Abraham to lie and say she's his sister, so then when they arrived in Egypt, Sarah wouldn't be (??? killed/kidnapped/raped???) for belonging to him when they would want her since she was apparently that beautiful. Abraham went along with this plan, and apparently the King decided to marry Sarah.
As God promised, the King and his men all fell very ill as a result of unwittingly wronging Abraham. The King approached Abraham and asked him why he hadn't told him he was Sarah's husband? After all, he wouldn't have married her if that were the case. Then he told them to scram.
(It just seems to me like their plan was very flawed from the beginning. First of all, they lied. Second of all, as a result of their lie, God punished the King and his men. Third, when the King found out the real deal, he did the right thing. I'm obviously missing something.)
So then Abraham and Sarah, and good ol' Lot (the nephew) and his wife (and their slaves), traveled on. Abraham and Lot (and their people) ended up getting into some arguments over money, land, animals (the usual), and they decided to part ways. Lot went toward the lush Jordan Valley, and Abraham ended up staying in the land of Canaan.
God promises Abraham all the land he can see, and prosperity that abounds. Abraham builds God a statue.
Soon after, Lot got into some trouble. Abraham rescued him.
Abraham had another vision of God telling him not to be afraid, and that he would be protected. God went on to tell Abraham that he and his family would live a blessed and full life, but that Abraham's people would be persecuted, tortured, put into slavery and basically live a terrible existence for 400 years, but that God would punish the people who put them through all of that. After 4 generations, Abraham's people would return and reclaim the land.
...Okay, so they know that being in slavery is undesirable, but they have their own slaves? I need to understand why that was okay...
So Abraham and Sarah want a child, but Sarah can't conceive. Sarah decides to offer up her slave (Hagar) to Abraham to see if he can have any luck getting her pregnant, and if he does, Sarah will take the child as her own. (Again, I'm not understanding how that isn't completely evil/immoral, and how God was choosing Abraham to lead God's people...)
This is what happened next, and I'll just let the words come straight from the Bible (CEV):
"Genesis 16:4Later, when Hagar knew she was going to have a baby, she became proud and was hateful to Sarai. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, "It's all your fault! [b] I gave you my slave woman, but she has been hateful to me ever since she found out she was pregnant. You have done me wrong, and you will have to answer to the LORD for this." 6Abram said, "All right! She's your slave, and you can do whatever you want with her." But Sarai began treating Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away. "
So Hagar runs away, but has a vision of an angel that tells her to go back to Sarah to be her slave, and that she'll be rewarded with a son who will give her many descendants, but he'll be an outcast, and everyone will hate him and he'll always be fighting with everyone. Somehow, Hagar thinks this is an okay deal, so she returns to Abraham, and they give birth to Ishmael. Abraham was 86.
When Abraham turned 99, he had a vision of God telling him again that he'll have many descendants and nations from his lineage. God tells him to circumcise just about every man he can get his hands on...sons, slaves, men, boys...and Abraham and Sarah's names were then changed from their former Abram/Sarai names to Abraham and Sarah. Sarah was 90 at the time, and God promised her a son...Isaac.
Genesis 18 is really confusing to me. It reads as though God wants to kill the people of Sodom and Gomorrah for being evil, but Abraham talks God off the ledge. Abraham reminds God that their may be people living there who aren't evil, so God backs off a little.
Genesis 19 talks about how Lot, living in Sodom, has some angels visit as guests. The men and boys of the town demand to see Lot's guests so they can have sex with them. Lot is appalled, so he offers up his two virgin daughters instead. (Whaaaa???)
Obviously, the angels could hold their own, so they went out and made the whole crowd blind. The next morning, they forced Lot and his family to leave so that they could destroy the evil town. They told them not to look back.
Lot's wife did, and she was turned into a block of salt. I've always wondered if this is more of a parable. If Sodom was destroyed by fire, did Lot's wife actually go back because she didn't want to leave, and her body was burned and in essence cremated, which made her look like a block of salt?
After all this, Lot and his daughters move into a cave. They decide there's no one there for them to marry, so they come up with a big plan to get their dad drunk so they can have sex with him and get pregnant. They succeeded with their plan, and both had children as a result.
How they were not included with the evil people in Sodom is beyond me.
Finally, Abraham turns 100, and he and Sarah give birth to Isaac. Sarah doesn't want her slave and her step son Ishmael around anymore. She wants Isaac to inherit all that Abraham has, so she banishes them.
Years later, God decides to test Abraham, and tells him he needs to sacrifice his only son, Isaac (except that he has another son, Ishmael). Abraham agrees to sacrifice Isaac, but when he is about to go through with it, and angel stops him, and let's him know it was just a test. Phew.
30 years passes...Sarah dies, Isaac marries Rebekah, Abraham marries Keturah and has six more children...and he finally died at 175.
So, for what it's worth, even though the God depicted in these stories isn't the God I feel as though I know, Abraham certainly did follow what he believed to be God's will for his entire life. By today's standards, Abraham would probably not receive the stamp of approval from the religious right.
He let his wife marry someone else, he took on his wife's slave as a wife while he was still married...he banished his slave wife and their son...all I can say is that I need to know a lot more about those times, and more history of the passages before I can truly understand the whole deal with Abraham and the God who appeared in these stories.
If I've learned anything from the life of Abraham, it's once again that it's so important to understand the big picture. If you take and choose pieces of the Bible to suit your needs or agenda, from Abraham and Lot's story alone you can advocate polygamy, incest, child abandonment, and open marriages.
I think it is absolutely critical to question your beliefs. We cannot blindly accept what we have been told about God or religion or the Bible, just because we have heard it our entire lives. We must think for ourselves, and really give thought and prayer to understanding what it is all about. There are some really important messages and life lessons to uncover and live by, if we can move forward with an open and curious mind and heart.
What's the deal with Abraham anyway? Christianity, Judaism and Islam are all traced back to him. Why him?
Abraham was a descendant of Noah, and a descendant of Adam...naturally...
In Genesis 12, God promises Abraham (then Abram) that he will make him into a great nation, showered with blessings, but he needs to leave his family and country. God said he'd bless Abraham and his people, and if anyone cursed them, God would curse them back. (Old Testament God seemed to have a different approach than New Testament God.)
There are a series of strange happenings, such as Abraham's wife Sarah (then Sarai) convincing Abraham to lie and say she's his sister, so then when they arrived in Egypt, Sarah wouldn't be (??? killed/kidnapped/raped???) for belonging to him when they would want her since she was apparently that beautiful. Abraham went along with this plan, and apparently the King decided to marry Sarah.
As God promised, the King and his men all fell very ill as a result of unwittingly wronging Abraham. The King approached Abraham and asked him why he hadn't told him he was Sarah's husband? After all, he wouldn't have married her if that were the case. Then he told them to scram.
(It just seems to me like their plan was very flawed from the beginning. First of all, they lied. Second of all, as a result of their lie, God punished the King and his men. Third, when the King found out the real deal, he did the right thing. I'm obviously missing something.)
So then Abraham and Sarah, and good ol' Lot (the nephew) and his wife (and their slaves), traveled on. Abraham and Lot (and their people) ended up getting into some arguments over money, land, animals (the usual), and they decided to part ways. Lot went toward the lush Jordan Valley, and Abraham ended up staying in the land of Canaan.
God promises Abraham all the land he can see, and prosperity that abounds. Abraham builds God a statue.
Soon after, Lot got into some trouble. Abraham rescued him.
Abraham had another vision of God telling him not to be afraid, and that he would be protected. God went on to tell Abraham that he and his family would live a blessed and full life, but that Abraham's people would be persecuted, tortured, put into slavery and basically live a terrible existence for 400 years, but that God would punish the people who put them through all of that. After 4 generations, Abraham's people would return and reclaim the land.
...Okay, so they know that being in slavery is undesirable, but they have their own slaves? I need to understand why that was okay...
So Abraham and Sarah want a child, but Sarah can't conceive. Sarah decides to offer up her slave (Hagar) to Abraham to see if he can have any luck getting her pregnant, and if he does, Sarah will take the child as her own. (Again, I'm not understanding how that isn't completely evil/immoral, and how God was choosing Abraham to lead God's people...)
This is what happened next, and I'll just let the words come straight from the Bible (CEV):
"Genesis 16:4Later, when Hagar knew she was going to have a baby, she became proud and was hateful to Sarai. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, "It's all your fault! [b] I gave you my slave woman, but she has been hateful to me ever since she found out she was pregnant. You have done me wrong, and you will have to answer to the LORD for this." 6Abram said, "All right! She's your slave, and you can do whatever you want with her." But Sarai began treating Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away. "
So Hagar runs away, but has a vision of an angel that tells her to go back to Sarah to be her slave, and that she'll be rewarded with a son who will give her many descendants, but he'll be an outcast, and everyone will hate him and he'll always be fighting with everyone. Somehow, Hagar thinks this is an okay deal, so she returns to Abraham, and they give birth to Ishmael. Abraham was 86.
When Abraham turned 99, he had a vision of God telling him again that he'll have many descendants and nations from his lineage. God tells him to circumcise just about every man he can get his hands on...sons, slaves, men, boys...and Abraham and Sarah's names were then changed from their former Abram/Sarai names to Abraham and Sarah. Sarah was 90 at the time, and God promised her a son...Isaac.
Genesis 18 is really confusing to me. It reads as though God wants to kill the people of Sodom and Gomorrah for being evil, but Abraham talks God off the ledge. Abraham reminds God that their may be people living there who aren't evil, so God backs off a little.
Genesis 19 talks about how Lot, living in Sodom, has some angels visit as guests. The men and boys of the town demand to see Lot's guests so they can have sex with them. Lot is appalled, so he offers up his two virgin daughters instead. (Whaaaa???)
Obviously, the angels could hold their own, so they went out and made the whole crowd blind. The next morning, they forced Lot and his family to leave so that they could destroy the evil town. They told them not to look back.
Lot's wife did, and she was turned into a block of salt. I've always wondered if this is more of a parable. If Sodom was destroyed by fire, did Lot's wife actually go back because she didn't want to leave, and her body was burned and in essence cremated, which made her look like a block of salt?
After all this, Lot and his daughters move into a cave. They decide there's no one there for them to marry, so they come up with a big plan to get their dad drunk so they can have sex with him and get pregnant. They succeeded with their plan, and both had children as a result.
How they were not included with the evil people in Sodom is beyond me.
Finally, Abraham turns 100, and he and Sarah give birth to Isaac. Sarah doesn't want her slave and her step son Ishmael around anymore. She wants Isaac to inherit all that Abraham has, so she banishes them.
Years later, God decides to test Abraham, and tells him he needs to sacrifice his only son, Isaac (except that he has another son, Ishmael). Abraham agrees to sacrifice Isaac, but when he is about to go through with it, and angel stops him, and let's him know it was just a test. Phew.
30 years passes...Sarah dies, Isaac marries Rebekah, Abraham marries Keturah and has six more children...and he finally died at 175.
So, for what it's worth, even though the God depicted in these stories isn't the God I feel as though I know, Abraham certainly did follow what he believed to be God's will for his entire life. By today's standards, Abraham would probably not receive the stamp of approval from the religious right.
He let his wife marry someone else, he took on his wife's slave as a wife while he was still married...he banished his slave wife and their son...all I can say is that I need to know a lot more about those times, and more history of the passages before I can truly understand the whole deal with Abraham and the God who appeared in these stories.
If I've learned anything from the life of Abraham, it's once again that it's so important to understand the big picture. If you take and choose pieces of the Bible to suit your needs or agenda, from Abraham and Lot's story alone you can advocate polygamy, incest, child abandonment, and open marriages.
I think it is absolutely critical to question your beliefs. We cannot blindly accept what we have been told about God or religion or the Bible, just because we have heard it our entire lives. We must think for ourselves, and really give thought and prayer to understanding what it is all about. There are some really important messages and life lessons to uncover and live by, if we can move forward with an open and curious mind and heart.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Old vs. New
It seems really odd that the biggest portion of the Bible is kind of irrelevant today. The Old Testament was written as a guide to live by until the New Testament (Jesus/Messiah) arrived. The Old Testament is rich with history, and it definitely possesses lessons to live by...it also contains lessons and laws that are completely irrelevant today.
Have you ever noticed that we like to pick and choose pieces from the Bible to serve our own purposes? I'm sure I did it when I was younger, and in my literal translation period. My sister sure did when she became part of a youth group (cult practically...okay, not practically, but it was a really weird group) that traveled Europe, showering together like inmates, eating prison slop for food and sharing lice, mono, and practically every other communicable disease you can imagine.
She came back convinced that she is a servant of God, and she needs to serve people on earth to...well, I forget why that was. I really was just having fun taking advantage of the few days she was still brainwashed into believing this when she got back from her trip. Every thing I wanted, she provided. If I was thirsty, she'd get me a drink. If I was hungry, she'd get me a snack. I think my abuse of her sweet efforts to serve really woke her out of the manipulative fog she was under, so at least some good came out of my juvenile behavior. ;-)
There are some really cool things in the Old Testament. Leviticus 17:13 - 14: 13 " 'Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, 14 because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off." (NIV)
From a health perspective, we didn't realize the life was in the blood until muuuuch later. In fact, we used to kill people through exsanguination as attempt to heal them. Not realizing that if we removed all their blood, people would die.
I do believe that some of the teachings in the Old Testament seemed to have wisdom behind them. Leviticus 18 spends time talking about how incest isn't such a great idea. I know that seems like a given to us now, but who knows what it was like back then. Now we know there are major complications that can happen if relatives have...relations...
Of course, Leviticus 18 goes on to say that man shouldn't lie with another man, as he would with a woman - that is an abomination. Leviticus 19 goes on to say that it is forbidden to wear clothing made of two different kinds of fabric, followed by a verse that says offering up a ram is the punishment for having sex with a female slave that was promised to another man.
Huh?
Clearly, these were different times, and they needed a different set of rules. I don't know if Leviticus 18:22 says a man shouldn't lie with another man because the idea was to populate the world at the time, or if it was something that was warned against for another reason. All I know is that when it's lumped in with not being allowed to wear a cotton/poly blend, but paying off slave rape with a ram, I'm not giving much credence to it. If we do, we are just choosing to be intolerant.
I don't see us persecuting those who cut their hair on the sides of their head, trim their beards, braid their hair, wear make up or those who get tattoos...these are also forbidden.
We can't pick and choose the parts of the Bible we want to listen to, and ignore the ones we don't. We have to look at the book as a historical document, as well as a living word of God. I was taught that the truths in the Bible will apply to all times, and it's just not the case. Some of it is a history book, some of it was for instruction before the coming of Christ, some of it was the word of men and women, some was prophecy, some parable, and some genealogy.
In order to fully understand the meaning, we need to understand what we are reading and why we are reading it. The Bible should never be used to foster hate or abuse, but it is all too often.
I hope to someday understand why.
Have you ever noticed that we like to pick and choose pieces from the Bible to serve our own purposes? I'm sure I did it when I was younger, and in my literal translation period. My sister sure did when she became part of a youth group (cult practically...okay, not practically, but it was a really weird group) that traveled Europe, showering together like inmates, eating prison slop for food and sharing lice, mono, and practically every other communicable disease you can imagine.
She came back convinced that she is a servant of God, and she needs to serve people on earth to...well, I forget why that was. I really was just having fun taking advantage of the few days she was still brainwashed into believing this when she got back from her trip. Every thing I wanted, she provided. If I was thirsty, she'd get me a drink. If I was hungry, she'd get me a snack. I think my abuse of her sweet efforts to serve really woke her out of the manipulative fog she was under, so at least some good came out of my juvenile behavior. ;-)
There are some really cool things in the Old Testament. Leviticus 17:13 - 14: 13 " 'Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, 14 because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off." (NIV)
From a health perspective, we didn't realize the life was in the blood until muuuuch later. In fact, we used to kill people through exsanguination as attempt to heal them. Not realizing that if we removed all their blood, people would die.
I do believe that some of the teachings in the Old Testament seemed to have wisdom behind them. Leviticus 18 spends time talking about how incest isn't such a great idea. I know that seems like a given to us now, but who knows what it was like back then. Now we know there are major complications that can happen if relatives have...relations...
Of course, Leviticus 18 goes on to say that man shouldn't lie with another man, as he would with a woman - that is an abomination. Leviticus 19 goes on to say that it is forbidden to wear clothing made of two different kinds of fabric, followed by a verse that says offering up a ram is the punishment for having sex with a female slave that was promised to another man.
Huh?
Clearly, these were different times, and they needed a different set of rules. I don't know if Leviticus 18:22 says a man shouldn't lie with another man because the idea was to populate the world at the time, or if it was something that was warned against for another reason. All I know is that when it's lumped in with not being allowed to wear a cotton/poly blend, but paying off slave rape with a ram, I'm not giving much credence to it. If we do, we are just choosing to be intolerant.
I don't see us persecuting those who cut their hair on the sides of their head, trim their beards, braid their hair, wear make up or those who get tattoos...these are also forbidden.
We can't pick and choose the parts of the Bible we want to listen to, and ignore the ones we don't. We have to look at the book as a historical document, as well as a living word of God. I was taught that the truths in the Bible will apply to all times, and it's just not the case. Some of it is a history book, some of it was for instruction before the coming of Christ, some of it was the word of men and women, some was prophecy, some parable, and some genealogy.
In order to fully understand the meaning, we need to understand what we are reading and why we are reading it. The Bible should never be used to foster hate or abuse, but it is all too often.
I hope to someday understand why.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Getting started
I was raised in a very religious, Baptist home. We attended church more than most, and it was a big part of our lives. It still is a big part of the lives of the rest of my family members. I was raised in a Christian school, which my parents created within the church they co-founded, and I was pretty saturated with their beliefs during my formative years.
I was raised with a very black and white view of faith, God, church, and everything beyond that. It was really easy to know how I felt about things, and my beliefs didn't involve a lot of introspection.
I accepted Jesus into my heart, which we called it at the time, when I was four. I'm not sure why the popular ticket into heaven of the time was reduced to that. I know it was originally meant to mean so much more, but at four years old, I thought that in order to avoid hell, I needed to tell Jesus that I accepted him into my heart.
Even at four, I wanted to change the world. I was convinced that I needed to do whatever I could to get people to say that they wanted to accept Jesus into their hearts, and I could help them avoid eternal damnation in hell! It seemed pretty urgent to me!
I remember devising a plan to trick my neighbor into the field behind our house, and tell her I was going to get a snack, but I was really going to get my sister to help me convince her that she needed to ask Jesus into her heart. Salvation by sabotage. That was my plan.
When I was in high school, I was a part of a First Night production of skits put on by my school. We offered free hot chocolate and harmless skits as a way to ensnare the unsuspecting New Years celebrant, and once we got them into the gymnasium, we began skits depicting demons (dressed in black), eerily circling unsuspecting people, set to dramatic music, and demonstrating that the world is a spiritual battle, and there are demons around at all times. If you want to avoid hell, you better listen to what we have to say.
After these horror skits, we'd quickly filter into the crowd and corner whoever we could. We had a little booklet called the Four Spiritual Laws, and we'd try to save these people from eternal damnation. Even at 13 and 14, I still misunderstood the bigger picture. I would tell these people that they may not feel it's necessary to pray this prayer with me today, but if they don't, they're going to go to hell, so what can it hurt?
I've always been good at sales, and I don't recall many people saying no to me, and I really thought I was guiding them to salvation...by strongarming them into saying a specific prayer.
I spent my high school summers traveling all over New England, and even some time in New York City, to share God's word with the children. My sales pitch was still just trying to get these kids to say the magic words that unlocked the keys to heaven.
Now, the children's clubs were a bit more effective than the hell scare skits of New Year's Eve. At least we taught them actual stories from the bible, and told them of God's love in a creative and loving manner. I think some of these kids may have opened their hearts to God's love, and for that I feel like I did some good.
Still, I thought it was all cut and dry. Black and white. I wish it was just that simple.
I was 10 years old before I realized my parents were even capable of sinning or being wrong. Once that realization hit, I questioned everything. My Dad had a double major in college in Bible and Psychology, and he had reference books that enabled me to translate sections of the Bible into the original Greek and Hebrew.
I began to question why our church would not allow women to be pastors. I noticed the more research I did, the more I realized the church (organized religion as a whole) has a bad habit of imposing their beliefs on top of God's instructions.
For example, I grew up calling God the Lord. I didn't realize that the first time that imagery was assigned to God was when King James decided to have a version of the Bible translated into his name, and then all the class systems and royalty references were introduced.
I should have known better. God chose to have Jesus born into the humblest of beginnings, living a life as a carpenter and socializing with the outcasts of the world. The Lord imagery is something that man would value.
These types of subtle, and not so subtle, changes that came with the translations of the words of God have shaped today's organized religion into a shadow of what I believe in my heart that God envisioned.
I am not a theologian, and I do not have the skills or resources to translate the Bible into English, without prejudice. I don't think I have the integrity to do such a thing anyway. I clearly have an agenda. I believe that God loves us all, and that men and women are created equal in God's eyes. While there are clear differences between the genders, I do not believe that God chose men to rule over women.
I think in order to have a truly unbiased translation, the translators should probably have no vested interest in the outcome of the translation. I think that makes sense!
For now, I will defer to the translations I have access to, and I will focus on the teachings of Jesus. It's a good place to start, since much of the Old Testament is discounted by the New Testament, and things like the Levitical Code are so obviously abused by some fanatical groups/religions, I don't want to go there.
Then there's the Apostle Paul, whose letters were published as part of the "word of God." Paul liked to throw his own two cents in from time to time, and that can just get confusing too, because it can be difficult to understand if Paul is talking or if God is talking. Some people say God was talking through Paul, but I don't know about that necessarily. I'm pretty sure God wired things for people to populate the earth at that time. Paul seemed to be a big fan of the single/celibate life.
In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul talks about how if people feel they must, then they should get married, but he would prefer everyone were (single/celibate) like him. He appears to suggest that marriage is really just a solution for people who do not have the self control to be celibate. He also appears to say he is okay with divorce, as long as there is no remarriage.
For years, I was raised believing that it was okay to divorce (in the case of abuse or infidelity), but that it was not okay to remarry after divorce. That doesn't even make sense. The only reason I was taught that was because that was Paul's opinion, and we're taking the advice of someone who clearly advocates a single lifestyle. Also, he made it clear he has no idea what God would say about marriage, and he was just offering his own advice. There is nothing wrong with that, but I wonder why these letters made it into the Bible.
I guess it wouldn't be so troubling if so many people didn't take every word so very literally, which in all actuality is impossible, because every Bible scholar knows that the Bible contradicts itself constantly, if interpreted literally.
Which brings me back to my plan to start with Jesus. I think we can all agree that Jesus' life can teach us great truths, and it really does give us a roadmap of how we should live our lives. I know that's really WWJD talk, but in the spirit of simplicity, I'm starting with the man who changed the world.
I was raised with a very black and white view of faith, God, church, and everything beyond that. It was really easy to know how I felt about things, and my beliefs didn't involve a lot of introspection.
I accepted Jesus into my heart, which we called it at the time, when I was four. I'm not sure why the popular ticket into heaven of the time was reduced to that. I know it was originally meant to mean so much more, but at four years old, I thought that in order to avoid hell, I needed to tell Jesus that I accepted him into my heart.
Even at four, I wanted to change the world. I was convinced that I needed to do whatever I could to get people to say that they wanted to accept Jesus into their hearts, and I could help them avoid eternal damnation in hell! It seemed pretty urgent to me!
I remember devising a plan to trick my neighbor into the field behind our house, and tell her I was going to get a snack, but I was really going to get my sister to help me convince her that she needed to ask Jesus into her heart. Salvation by sabotage. That was my plan.
When I was in high school, I was a part of a First Night production of skits put on by my school. We offered free hot chocolate and harmless skits as a way to ensnare the unsuspecting New Years celebrant, and once we got them into the gymnasium, we began skits depicting demons (dressed in black), eerily circling unsuspecting people, set to dramatic music, and demonstrating that the world is a spiritual battle, and there are demons around at all times. If you want to avoid hell, you better listen to what we have to say.
After these horror skits, we'd quickly filter into the crowd and corner whoever we could. We had a little booklet called the Four Spiritual Laws, and we'd try to save these people from eternal damnation. Even at 13 and 14, I still misunderstood the bigger picture. I would tell these people that they may not feel it's necessary to pray this prayer with me today, but if they don't, they're going to go to hell, so what can it hurt?
I've always been good at sales, and I don't recall many people saying no to me, and I really thought I was guiding them to salvation...by strongarming them into saying a specific prayer.
I spent my high school summers traveling all over New England, and even some time in New York City, to share God's word with the children. My sales pitch was still just trying to get these kids to say the magic words that unlocked the keys to heaven.
Now, the children's clubs were a bit more effective than the hell scare skits of New Year's Eve. At least we taught them actual stories from the bible, and told them of God's love in a creative and loving manner. I think some of these kids may have opened their hearts to God's love, and for that I feel like I did some good.
Still, I thought it was all cut and dry. Black and white. I wish it was just that simple.
I was 10 years old before I realized my parents were even capable of sinning or being wrong. Once that realization hit, I questioned everything. My Dad had a double major in college in Bible and Psychology, and he had reference books that enabled me to translate sections of the Bible into the original Greek and Hebrew.
I began to question why our church would not allow women to be pastors. I noticed the more research I did, the more I realized the church (organized religion as a whole) has a bad habit of imposing their beliefs on top of God's instructions.
For example, I grew up calling God the Lord. I didn't realize that the first time that imagery was assigned to God was when King James decided to have a version of the Bible translated into his name, and then all the class systems and royalty references were introduced.
I should have known better. God chose to have Jesus born into the humblest of beginnings, living a life as a carpenter and socializing with the outcasts of the world. The Lord imagery is something that man would value.
These types of subtle, and not so subtle, changes that came with the translations of the words of God have shaped today's organized religion into a shadow of what I believe in my heart that God envisioned.
I am not a theologian, and I do not have the skills or resources to translate the Bible into English, without prejudice. I don't think I have the integrity to do such a thing anyway. I clearly have an agenda. I believe that God loves us all, and that men and women are created equal in God's eyes. While there are clear differences between the genders, I do not believe that God chose men to rule over women.
I think in order to have a truly unbiased translation, the translators should probably have no vested interest in the outcome of the translation. I think that makes sense!
For now, I will defer to the translations I have access to, and I will focus on the teachings of Jesus. It's a good place to start, since much of the Old Testament is discounted by the New Testament, and things like the Levitical Code are so obviously abused by some fanatical groups/religions, I don't want to go there.
Then there's the Apostle Paul, whose letters were published as part of the "word of God." Paul liked to throw his own two cents in from time to time, and that can just get confusing too, because it can be difficult to understand if Paul is talking or if God is talking. Some people say God was talking through Paul, but I don't know about that necessarily. I'm pretty sure God wired things for people to populate the earth at that time. Paul seemed to be a big fan of the single/celibate life.
In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul talks about how if people feel they must, then they should get married, but he would prefer everyone were (single/celibate) like him. He appears to suggest that marriage is really just a solution for people who do not have the self control to be celibate. He also appears to say he is okay with divorce, as long as there is no remarriage.
For years, I was raised believing that it was okay to divorce (in the case of abuse or infidelity), but that it was not okay to remarry after divorce. That doesn't even make sense. The only reason I was taught that was because that was Paul's opinion, and we're taking the advice of someone who clearly advocates a single lifestyle. Also, he made it clear he has no idea what God would say about marriage, and he was just offering his own advice. There is nothing wrong with that, but I wonder why these letters made it into the Bible.
I guess it wouldn't be so troubling if so many people didn't take every word so very literally, which in all actuality is impossible, because every Bible scholar knows that the Bible contradicts itself constantly, if interpreted literally.
Which brings me back to my plan to start with Jesus. I think we can all agree that Jesus' life can teach us great truths, and it really does give us a roadmap of how we should live our lives. I know that's really WWJD talk, but in the spirit of simplicity, I'm starting with the man who changed the world.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
