November, 2013
In
a piece I published yesterday, (Study Shows:
Reading Your Bible Often Makes You More Liberal), we took a look at
a study I read the other day which showed the more often people read their
Bible, the more liberal/progressive they become. (In yesterday’s article I used
the term “liberal” but in today’s I’m using the term “progressive” since that’s
what I identify as). Looking back on my own journey out of fundamentalist
thinking and into a Christianity that is life-giving instead of life-sucking
for me, this trajectory of moving away from the hard right the more I read my
Bible, has been a daily reality.
From
getting to know so many of your stories, it sounds like many of you have
experienced similar paradigm shifts of predictable right-to-left movement the
more you embraced the Bible as well.
(Quick
point of order: I’m not saying that reading your Bible will make you all the
way left, because certainly I am not on many issues. The argument is simply
that for those of us on the hard right, when we read our Bibles more often, it
tends to move us in a leftward motion on certain issues.)
The
question becomes, why?
For
those family and friends still stuck in a paradigm we have already left, when
we move ever so slightly out of the far-right corner of the field we are
assumed to be not taking the Bible seriously, accused of being “relativists”,
and other assumptions are made as to why we are changing. The ironic truth
however, is that so many of us have arrived at being Christian progressives not
because we decided to set half the Bible aside, and not because we decided to stop
taking the Bible seriously, but as a gradual process that resulted from taking
the Bible more seriously and deciding to try to follow those often
neglected parts.
We
became Christian progressives because we read our Bibles, not because we put
them away. It’s okay if you’re not here yet or if you ever will be, but it’s
important to understand the truth about how and why we arrived here.
While
this isn’t all comprehensive, based upon my own experience, here’s my list:
10
reasons why I think reading your Bible more frequently will make you a more
Progressive Christian:
1.
The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that I don’t have it all together.
Growing
up I was frequently reminded that the Bible, through the Holy Spirit will
convict us of sin… and you know what, it’s true. The more I get to know my
Bible the more I realize how deeply flawed I am… which makes me see others more
compassionately, because I am reminded that they are just like me. The more I
see others as being just like me, the more progressive I become because I move
in a trajectory of love, tolerance, and am way less likely to pronounce
judgment on someone else than I was before. (Obviously, I still struggle with
Mark Driscoll, but I am working on it.)
2.
The more I read my Bible, the more I develop humility.
The
Apostle Paul says that we should view our sins as being worse than anyone else,
and that we should view ourselves as walking examples of how patient God is
with people who can’t get it together. When I am honest about my life, that is
absolutely true. I am a walking example of someone who knows how to test God’s
patience, and my sins are just as bad as whatever yours might be. This
realization made it too difficult to stay in my old paradigm; yes, I want to
spend my life inviting people to experience Jesus (in that regard, I am
completely still an “evangelical”), but I want to do it in a new way– a more
humble way. I’m not always there (see #1) but I desperately want to get there.
3.
The more I read my Bible, the more I discover that justice for the poor and
oppressed is at the heart of it.
I
wasn’t all that concerned about the poor and oppressed until I opened my Bible…
and discovered that commands to care for them are all over the place from the
Old Testament, all the way through the New Testament. I tried to escape it and
explain it away, but I can’t– God wants us to care for, serve, and love these
people.
4.
The more I read my Bible, the more I realize “redistribution of wealth” wasn’t
Obama’s idea– it was God’s.
That
redistribution of wealth stuff? Yeah, it’s in the Bible and was actually God’s
idea. In the Old Testament we have years of Jubilee, restrictions on gleaning
your garden more than once, a command from God that there should be “no poor
among you”, and prophets who came to denounce the nation when the rich grew
richer and the poor grew poorer. Let’s not give Obama the credit– God thought
of it first.
5.
The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that the early Christians actually
practiced this re-distribution of wealth.
Those
early Christians? Well, for a time they actually practiced some radical
economic principles. And, guess what? The book of Acts tells us that there
weren’t any poor people among them. They rejected individual ownership, gave
their wealth to leadership who in turn, redistributed it according to need.
There weren’t any mandatory drug testing programs, just assistance according to
need. While this still seems too radical for me, it moves me in a right to left
trajectory as I read it.
6.
The more I read my Bible the more I realize Jesus taught we need to pay our
taxes.
After
reading 4 and 5, some are probably saying “yeah, but that was never supposed to
be the government’s job”. Well, in the life of Jesus we see him tell someone
that he should “sell everything and give it to the poor”, and to yet another we
see that Jesus commands us to pay our taxes. So, it looks like we’re not
getting off the hook either way– we need to pay our taxes AND give private
charity. It’s not an either or proposition. I’m not a fan of that either, but
it’s in the Bible.
7.
The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God wants us to be people who
are quick to show mercy.
The
prophet Micah says that “loving mercy” is actually something God “requires” of
us. Jesus tells us that justice and mercy are the “more important” parts
of God’s law. This means that when it comes to issues of justice, economics,
poverty, the death penalty, etc., I have become more quick to take the default
position that sides with radical mercy.
8.
The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God cares how we treat
immigrants.
Whenever
God lists out a group of people that he wants his people to take care of,
immigrants make the cut. The more I read about God’s heart for the immigrant,
the more I realize that I might be held accountable for how I treat them, and
how I talk about them.
9.
The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God will hold us accountable
for how we care for the environment.
The
more I read my Bible, the more I see that God’s original mandate for humanity,
was to care for creation– we were designed for and given the task of being
environmental conservationists. In the end? Well, we see that God is going to
judge quite harshly those who refused:
“The
nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and
for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your
name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth”
(Rev 11:18)
Not
sure how to escape it– God wants me to care for and protect the environment, so
I will.
10.
The more I read my Bible, the more I realize that God isn’t judging us by
whether or not we get all of our doctrine right– he’s judging us by whether or
not we get the “love one another” part right.
This
aspect wasn’t a major player in my faith before, but the more I read the Bible
the more I realize that God is less concerned with us all sharing the same
doctrine but is heavily concerned with whether or not we love each other. In
fact, Jesus said this would be the calling card of his followers, and how
others would realize we’re actually following Jesus– that we love one another.
The more I read my Bible, the more I want to defer my position or preference
and instead side with what is in the best interest of others– because that’s
the loving thing to do.
These are
the 10 reasons why reading my Bible more made me a more Progressive Christian. How has reading your Bible
more often changed your worldview? Has your experience been similar or
different?
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