A Rant
It drives me crazy to listen to someone explain how their perception, interpretation, or opinion is the only correct one. Do you know people who, no matter how wrong they might actually be, they will not budge about being right? I do. Many of them claim to follow Christ. Many of them are pastors, leaders, and teachers in some ministry or another.
For at least 2000 years, people have been interpreting the teachings in the Bible. A collection of writings such as the Bible spans many, many years. During those many years, cultural, political, and spiritual climates obviously changed. What was acceptable in the Old Testament is not in the New, for example. So even within the Bible itself, new interpretations were being made.
Then enters this man named Jesus, the son of Joseph. He says things like, “you have heard it said that…” and “but I say…” These are his new interpretations of old, long standing traditional teachings, often teaching handed down from generation to generation dating back to Moses. Many so-called laws were often evaluated in light of new cultural, political, and spiritual climates. Even Paul, a life long Jew comes to the conclusion that the dietary laws so crucial to the ritual and devotion of the Jews should no longer be binding.
So I sit in class and listen to pseudo-intellectuals debating whether the King James version is the only true version of the Bible, and other important matters, and I just go nuts.
If you put 100 followers of Jesus in a room and said, “OK, we gathered you here to hammer out the binding, non-negotiable, essential aspects of salvation.” You would be there a very long time, and you would not have a unanimous decision. In fact, I would say that if you tried that with 10 followers of Jesus, you may get 10 different answers regarding the “essentials” of salvation.
So why do I point this out? Because we can believe that we have “it” right. We can become drunk with arrogance, and become deaf to dialogue. We can lose all compassion and love and understanding. We can become the very Pharisees who crucified the One we claim to follow.
Are there tough questions that require tough answers? Sure.
Are the some answers that will offend and possibly marginalize other people? Perhaps.
But why do it in arrogance and ignorance instead of exploring possibilities in love?
Dan Kimball, an author of a few books about Christianity in today’s post-modern culture, has written a new book called, “They Like Jesus, but Not the Church.” A sad, but true reminder of negative impact that we are having in our culture.
Ghandi is quoted as saying, “Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
And this is our legacy.
Sadly, I agree.
Labels: Arrogance, Dan Kimball, Ghandi, interpretation, rant
posted by Mike @ 11:57 PM
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