Reposted from September 26, 2011:
I remember sitting as a child in my family’s Southern Baptist Church while the preacher interpreted Bible verses to justify segregation and discrimination of African-Americans and how God was fine with the way things were.
I remember sitting in a congregation while the preacher quoted Scripture to prove that Catholics should never be elected president of the United States because they engaged in idolatry.
I remember sitting in another Southern Baptist church as the minister railed about the stain on the Jewish people because they had murdered Jesus and how they will go to hell if they don’t convert to Christianity.
I remember multiple sermons using the Bible to maintain second class status for women in Southern Baptist Church.
Copernicus Mean Anything to You?
So, it’s absolutely no surprise that people are today sitting in the congregation at Bellevue Baptist Church listening to yet another Southern Baptist preacher, Rev. Steve Gaines, using his Bible as a hammer to stand on the side of discrimination and inequality.
We predict confidently that there will be a time when Mr. Gaines is viewed with as much disbelief as we now view Father Coughlan’s hate-filled sermons of the 1930s. As Mr. Gaines obfuscates the meaning of Scripture and parses words to support his pre-existing prejudices, he joins other false prophets that were proven over time to be absolutely wrong in their theology.
History has a way of overtaking religious-oriented bigotry, from the Inquisition to the crusades, from bloody conversions to Christianity and slavery, and from anti-Semitism to Copernicus. In other words, the Bible accepts things, including sexual behaviors, that we condemn today and we accept behaviors that it condemns.
The Bible is not a science book. It is not a history book. It is not a human sexuality book. It is a sacred book. It seems at times that those who tell us repeatedly that they have the most faith are the ones with the least, and because of it, they need everything in the Bible to be unquestioned, such as the age of the earth or the origins of humankind.
Tea Party Theology
It’s a Tea Party theology that treats the Bible as if the interpretation of its verses hasn’t changed drastically over time nor that the culture and context of the time when it was written aren’t relevant in understanding them. In the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, people were asked 32 questions. Scoring highest were atheists and agnostics who averaged 20.9 correct answers. Jews averaged 20.5 and Mormons 20.3. Protestants meanwhile averaged only 16.
Most Christians have no historical context of how women were marginalized centuries after Christ in decisions that were more political than theological. Most Christians don’t know that centuries after the books of the New Testament were written, church councils were being called to debate and decide whether Jesus was divine and if He was, to define the nature of that divinity. There’s also the question of translations into English and decisions about what books would be included in the official canon.
As a result, it’s unsurprising that so many believers accept interpretations of the Bible with little understanding of their own or try to understand their meanings in keeping with the original Hebrew or Greek and within the context of their times as Israelites wandered and struggled for survival. It was a time when strong conformity was needed because there were no prisons for a nomadic people, and as a result, death was the penalty of choice, for crimes ranging from murder, adultery, masturbation, cursing a parent, and to a false claim of a woman’s virginity at the time of marriage.
Curiously, the anti-gay Gospel preachers manage to ignore all of these inconvenient teachings – when’s the last time you heard a sermon against adultery or divorce? – and obsess on the sexuality of a minority among us. They take the story of Sodom and totally misstate the reasons for Sodom’s destruction, which is mostly about its citizens’ unwillingness to help the poor and those in need. In ignoring the full context, many preachers engage in the worst kind of bigotry – the kind that objectifies and vilifies a subgroup in exchange for their special feelings of being the “real” Christians.
Methinks He Protests Too Much
The strangest thing about this fixation on other people’s sexuality is that it relies heavily on a questionable interpretation of a handful of verses that have other interpretations when the culture of the time is taken into account. Yes, there are other more reasoned explanations when context, culture, etymology are taken into account. More to the point, Christians are supposed to believe that Jesus’ gospel of love overrode the Old Testament, a fact often ignored by Mr. Gaines and others.
If homosexuality was a prime concern of the time, it’s strange that Jesus said nothing about it nor did the Jewish prophets, and while people like Mr. Gaines obsess on six or seven verses in one million to justify their political positions, none of these verses refer to same-sex orientation as it is today.
There are many people of good faith and deep faith who are wrestling with the angels of their nature and what preachers are telling them the Bible said. Some feel that while they have no personal objections to gay relationships, they see the Bible as unyielding and unequivocal. And yet, Christianity celebrates heroes who changed their minds about the meaning of various Bible verses, and even if we believe that the Bible is infallible, it’s still dangerous to assume that humans are too as they interpret what it says.
After all, the Bible says that it’s acceptable for a man to have sex with a prostitute but not for a woman to do it. There’s also the small matter of polygamy, concubines, sex with slaves, marriage of girls at an age that Warren Jeffs would have envied, and women as property.
Holy Ghost
Christians are strong believers in the power of the Holy Spirit to move through history. Perhaps it moves most effectively in providing us with the science to illuminate when teachings from the ancient world are no longer relevant to us today or require new interpretation because they were written for a particular time and place. That’s why there are numerous verses of the Bible that even Mr. Gaines no longer considers appropriate to follow.
It’s confusing to us that so many fundamentalist Christian officials are transfixed by homosexuality while ignoring the Bible’s many admonitions for helping the poor. As for the much-quoted Leviticus code, it was a code for a particular time and place. It includes much of the sexual laws we ignore today but rather than focus on this broad fact, Mr. Gaines picks out a few words and amplifies them far beyond their actual meaning or importance.
More and more, we are finally leaving an untenable “don’t ask, don’t tell” world. In times of great change in history, there is often a brand of extremism that does everything possible to resist and to attack the symbols of that change. Gays are a convenient stalking horse for the fear of change, but there is no way that we should remain quiet in the midst of strident religious scapegoating of our homosexual neighbors, friends, and family members who are special blessings from God in our lives and in our city.
If people want to quote verses, how about the warnings about judging others?
yadda yadda yadda.
Now what about Riverside drive’s bike lanes?
Parking at the Zoo?
Price of the new FedEx sponsored memphis vodka?
you know, the REAL issues.
leave religion or the lack of it to the AM stations.
Yadda, yadda, yaddah is right!
very timely post – deja vu is right. you’d think we’d have progressed past this point by now but I guess Bellevue/southern Christians rarely, if ever, surprise us by being forward-thinking or by preaching acceptance and tolerance.
Here’s the thing, boys. It’s our blog and we write about things that we want to write about. Real things. For 10 years, we’ve occasionally written on religion and we’ll probably do it in the next 10.
But here’s the thing, we write most often about public policy, and when religiosity is used to justify the most narrow-minded bigotry, it affects public policy and Memphis’ ability to compete. Tolerance is a competitive advantage in attracting talent and in creating a sense of place where everyone feels that they can live the life they want to live.
And if trends continue, look for more about the negative nexus of religion and policy and politics, not less.
Now, do you have something relevant to say about the actual conclusions and content?
Come to think of it, we should have said boy in the singular, not the plural. The same person wrote both anonymous comments.
ah, the old IP address….dead giveaway every time. very good points, SCM.
I appreciate most everything you write, though I have to disagree with you when it comes to biblical interpretation. Those who adhere to the validity of scripture can reject homosexuality as a lifestyle without resorting to bigotry or hate. I do completely agree that Christians would best speak more vocally on the topics of adultery and divorce, as that has a much greater negative impact on our city–fractured families significantly increase the likelihood of children being raised in poverty.
I believe we were saying the same thing you were, although we believe the two overpowering mandates from the Scriptures are 1) he without sin cast the first stone and 2) and the greatest of these is love.
PS: You make an important point: “I have to disagree with you when it comes to biblical interpretation.” That’s the thing about the Scripture – we all have our individual interpretations of what the verses mean, but my version shouldn’t be codified into law any more than some one else’s should. We are not a theocracy, thank God, and a democracy embraces people with all interpretations and does not put one superior over another.