A Discussion of Scripture

Submitted by:     Rich Pope

Member, Freedom From Religion Foundation Metropolitan Chicago Chapter

(On) 6/25/14, I shared on FB a post by John Loftus, a former minister and now and atheist and the brain behind the “Debunking Christianity” website/FB page and several books. The post quoted several horrendous scriptures from the Bible on slavery. With my share, I commented, “Ah, the Good Book”.

A former ministerial colleague of mine, still “in the pulpit”, took issue with the piece. Following are the pertinent portions of the dialogue we had:

Him: “Someday you may mature enough to give up 19th century proof-texting, anachronism, inerrancy, and literalism as methods of biblical interpretation. It will read a lot different when you do.”

Me: “Thought I might hear from you. Ever the faithful apologist. It’s simply a fact that these scriptures are there, and I believe they are accurately quoted. That’s all I’m saying, plus the fact that I don’t think it says anyplace that slavery is bad. (And I’ll give you this: you can tap dance with the best of them).”

Him: “Those scriptures quoted have nothing to do with life some 3000 years later. And I suspect, although do not have my resources handy to make a case, you will find that 3000 years ago those texts provided a small step in the direction of justice in a world of cruelty we might only be able to guess at. In essence they are relatively meaningless today except for biblical literalists like you.”

Me: “How come in the holy book, inspired by an all-loving God, they didn’t come out and say, for all time, that owning another person is flat out wrong? Why just baby steps toward justice? Here’s my point: Christian believers have their go-to book—the Holy Bible. Actually, they are, more accurately, “stuck with it”. It’s got all the flowery, feel good, love your neighbor, golden rule stuff in it, but it’s also got stuff like the slavery verses, that condone slavery and say that slave masters should just be nicer. It’s also got the stuff in it about stoning disobedient children and adulterers, slaughtering whole families/tribes/cultures, right down to the livestock, selling women and girls or just offering them up as the play objects for male friends, etc. (these barely scratch the surface). Passages that deal with those things aren’t so quotable. They don’t make good “life verses”. So believers have to either ignore them or “put them in context”, or “interpret them accurately”, or “do more thorough exegesis on them”, or consider the differences in the OT being “under the law” and the NT, which is somehow a brighter day. While those are the tried and true tools of Biblical study, the fact is that the Bible, particularly the O.T. but also the NT, is replete with problematic and disturbing images of a monstrous, jealous, bloodthirsty God. Too much of the Bible presents a worldview that is anything but loving. There is flat out horrific stuff in scripture, as well as just plain nonsense. You can tap dance around them all you want, but you can’t deny they’re there. The good doesn’t outweigh the bad. For these reasons, and because it’s filled with contradictions and inconsistencies, the Bible is not a book that should be followed as anyone’s guide for daily living. (The same is true for the Koran and any other “holy book” that is based on the supernatural, myth, and miracles). Humanity would do just fine without it. There are many other books and other written materials, ancient and contemporary, fiction and non-fiction, that we can turn to for guidance on how to be good human beings.”

To be continued…