Even though I respect the Bible, I believe that love trumps the Bible:
As a teenager, there were other Christians in my life pointing out that Jonah is an allegory, there was no person literally swallowed by a big fish and surviving in its belly for three days. A literal “seven day creation” interpretation of Genesis was brought into question.
The dominos fell from there.
At Bible college I was taught that the Bible contains a vast array of errors, it is subject to translation and interpretation. And now, so many years later, I hold the Bible’s teachings even less literally than ever before. I perceive authors of Scripture as people grappling with who they think God is, just as we grapple with our God concept too. I respect their journeys, stories, and experiences.
I respect the Bible, but I had a meltdown this week and I came to the conclusion that I would rather love my queer relatives (I have at least 8 of them) and treat them as equals and value and respect them, than worry about anything the Bible says about queer issues. Sure, I can study queer-affirming theology and why the clobber passages are mistranslated and misinterpreted but that won’t benefit people who refuse to see the Bible as errant, fallible, or subject to interpretation.
I would rather throw away the Bible than throw away people.
No one has the right to tell people they can’t be queer and Christian or that queerness isn’t compatible with Christian values or that being queer-affirming isn’t compatible with Christianity. Who defines what is or isn’t Christian??
Christianity is coming to a crossroad in my opinion!
When Trump became president the first time, something wonderful happened. A bunch of evangelical Christians began to deconstruct their faith.
Christianity began to evolve more rapidly.
It has been evolving the whole time.
Religions do, in fact, change.
Biblical interpretation changes.
Many of the early Christians had to deconstruct Judaism or parts of it and convert to Christianity; others deconstructed Greek religions and reconstructed in the Christian faith.
Martin Luther taught salvation by grace through faith and the church evolved in new directions again.
When Pentecostal churches came on the scene many Christians found their faith evolving and reconstructing in this particular denomination.
Still others, like me, find it essential to their faith to deconstruct hell and become more universalistic Christians.
We, Christians, have formed so many denominations, there is no universal Christian ethic, there is no consensus about what Jesus achieved by dying, there is no clear cut road to salvation nor a clear definition of what Christianity is and who is in and who is out. I don’t think this should be our focus. I think it is all negotiable. Including the biblical authors, we are doing guesswork and probably trying to make the world a better place (according to our own standards of what is “better”).
You get to choose whether you identify as Christian or not.
You get to say whether you are queer, straight, or otherwise.
And you get to educate others about what has brought you to these positions on these topics so that we can all try to understand each other a little better and evolve toward a healthier world together.
Or at least, I think that should be the goal.
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