Bible or Bigotry
Modern culture tries to root out prejudice in all it’s forms. This is a good thing. Things, like whites-only restaurants, that were common a few decades ago are almost unthinkable now. It is one of the great moral steps forward society has made in the last 50 years. It does lead to some questions.What exactly is prejudice and what is a difference that is there for a good reason. There are not to many issues with this in terms of race but when is comes to gender and sexual orientation the questions get a lot harder. One question my protestant church asked was whether women could be pastors, elders, or deacons. We looked at scripture and initially the majority came to conclusion they could not be. But the minority complained. They saw sexism deeply embedded in the way folks read the bible. We needed to eliminate that. How do we do that? Well you find theologians who are not sexist. But sexism is subconcious, how are you supposed to tell whether somebody’s exegesis was influenced by sexism? In practice, you determined that by the answers they gave. That is you assume that someone was sexist or basing their opinions on sexist tradition if they came to the conclusion that women could not be ordained.
Now I was OK with this. I didn’t know what the right answer was. The church eventually came around to accepting ordained women so maybe that was OK. Then the same dynamic played itself out over anti-gay prejudice. Why should gays not be allowed to hold office in the church? Well there were some pretty strong biblical reasons why not. This time I was sure what the right answer was. But what about the charges of bigotry? How could I be sure my opinion was not based on prejudice? How could I be sure the theologians I read were not influenced by their own prejudice? I didn’t think so but that just meant it wasn’t conscious. It could be subconcious, couldn’t it?
The point is, people are likely to label me a bigot for interpreting scripture that way. How do I know they aren’t right? I can’t. So could I really stand up to any persecution society might throw at me? Before I suffer for a truth I would like to be sure it is actually true. Before I teach something that others are going to find hard to accept I want to be sure I am right.
What I really needed was infallibility. I didn’t imagine it at the time because I was raised to believe it was impossible. Even when I encountered papal infallibility I didn’t understand how beautiful it would be in situations like this. I was focused on the infallible statements I found hard. But once I came to accept the church’s teaching on this I became much more willing to speak the truth and to sacrifice for it.
Todays gospel is from John 12:44-50. It talks about Jesus being the light of the world. That He says exactly what His Father told Him to say. Knowing what the truth of God is allows us to be Christ-like in that respect. We can even say, like Jesus, “that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day” because we know it is true.
Anything less than certainty will causes a bad dynamic. Either we hedge our bets and become wishy washy or we create certainty withing ourselves and end up going into an unchecked extremism. With the church there to tell you what you know for sure and what you don’t it is a lot easier to hit the right spot in between indifference and extremism.
I find that usually when I see this trend, the one you illustrate, it’s someone who wants to push an agenda come hell or high water. They won’t take no for an answer. They’ve gotta get their way, and if you don’t let them, then they’ll calumniate and slander you. That’s how some people are… immature. Like kids on a playground.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:42 pmIt’s also the same rhetoric used in the “you can’t say anything that might offend someone” attitude, where you’ve gotta keep your peace and not profess the truth because it might hurt someone’s feelings. But I’m of the opinion that if they’re doing something wrong, it would be wrong to leave them feeling good about doing what’s wrong. They oughta feel bad about doing what’s wrong… duh.
This concept that you’re bad for saying something that might seem bad to someone else, like you’re a sexist if you think women can’t be ordained for example, or in my experience if you insist that women wear veils in mass, is a farce. People are not interested in truth anymore, it’s all about what “I” want. It’s all about self, not truth. The whole thing’s dishonest.
I guess I am OK with people saying whatever they want if I know there is not truth to it. But how can I be sure there is no truth to it? Can I say I am above sexism or homophobia? Can I say the scholars I read are above it? If no exegesis is above it then God is unable to say “No”. You could contruct a similar bias-based argument that makes God unable to say “Yes”. If I wanted to get what I want that would be great. But I really wanted God’s answer.
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm