The list of reactions to the Bible could fill libraries. In fact, they have. But reaction is one thing and the thing itself is another.
To be sure the Bible has been used as the most destructive book in human history and also used as the most life-affirming and healing book just as fully. How can such a thing be so at one and the same time?
We must admit it is just so.
I, of course, cannot be agenda free. That is not possible. But I can let my agenda be known and open to be challenged, changed and questioned.
Put quickly, my view of the Bible was very typical. Forced to go to church until I was 1o or so I grew up with a ten-year-old’s understanding of the Bible. Years later my view of this antiquated and irrelevant book was changed when someone visited me in a hospital (I had some minor run in with a cliff, a 63 Impala, alcohol and gravity). I did not like the guy who brought me the Bible. I knew he was sleeping with a girl who liked me at the fast food chain we worked at. This would not be my first run in with hypocrisy, but not the last… just later it was me instead.
I “knew what the Bible was”. All of us who have never read it or who have taken a cynical class in college “know” what it says. Except I actually read it this time. Just a chapter. It was John 8. The townsfolk in Galilee brought a woman just caught in the throes of adultery in front of Jesus and asked if he thought she should be “stoned” (this had a very negative connotation then). I was interested in what this religious man would say and was, quite frankly surprised when he asked the religious men who had gathered there “without sin” to start the stoning.
Well they left, dropping their stones.
What the heck?
Well that is all you need know about my experience. You will have your own as you read. Some things will disturb you..others surprise and delight you. The Bible is not a SAFE collection of documents.
The following POSTS on this site will focus on what the Bible IS. Not so much what it is not, though that needs to be addressed. I just would rather keep this in the realm of “exploring”. Really. When you find a passage that stymies you? Get on your scuba gear and go deeper.
How?
I, and others, will labor to give you simple tools to do your own exploration. You can come to our own conclusions and then discuss them with others here on the blog…or person to person on the forum.
My motivation? Money of course. Naw…it’s free. I just love exploring the human condition…always have..and the Bible is one great way to do that. Not the only way by any means. I also love poetry, art, discussion, philosophy and literature. But I have noted that, at least in the Western world, almost all those categories and expressions have some referential basis in the Old and New Testaments.
Rules for forums or comment? No rules except try to show some basic courtesy and humor when you call your neighbor an idiot. And so ask questions! Questions are the best.
Someone recently wrote that he was not a “Christian” anymore. He was a “Questioner”. I like that. Don’t we all have such questions in the wee hours?
I do.
~Mac
