[quote=zk][quote=Allan from Fallbrook] As a Catholic, I believe the bible is contextual, not literal,[/quote]
What good is it having the word of god if you can interpret it any way you want? Doesn’t it then become the word of whoever is interpreting it however he wants, and not the word of god?[/quote]
zk: Except I don’t believe that at all. I hold to a theology that, from a telelogical and ontological vantage, has remained internally consistent and constant for centuries.
I believe that modern American evangelicals embrace a “faith” that is immature, incomplete and ill-formed. When I listen to Michelle Bachmann or Rick Santorum, for example, telling me what God “thinks”, I’m repulsed. For someone to hold that the true teachings of Christ would proffer a worldview bent on destruction and war is vile and reprehensible.
I believe in the inerrancy of God’s word, but I also understand that the Bible, as it exists today, is a product of politics (meaning the First Council of Nicaea and their determination as to what was acceptable and what was not, for example the Apocryphal writings), and that the writings contained were not contiguous, thus the contradictions and the flaws.
Let me put it another way. Scaredy clearly adheres to the Judiac proscription of giving full voice to God’s name, thus his use of the word “G-d” in previous postings. As he pointed out, he has a “religious identity”. That said, however, he probably doesn’t agree with all strains of Judaism. I could point to large groups of Israeli Jewry, for example, that hold some extremely hate-filled and bigoted views on Islam and espouse a territorial prerogative that is eerily similar to the Nazi views on Lebensraum. Given Scaredy’s moderate views, I doubt very much he’d have any truck with that ilk.
Everyone’s path to God (or not) is their own. I agree completely that having God shoved in your face is wrong. If someone asks me for me views, I’ll tell them. Otherwise, however they find God (or not), is their business alone. This also illustrates the dangers of conflating religiosity with spirituality. One can be intensely spiritual and never set foot in a house of worship. Whether we believe it or not, or accept it or not, God’s divine spark exists in all of us.
My point was that one shouldn’t tar all Christians with the same brush, in the same way that one shouldn’t tar all members of a certain ethnicity or class or whatever with the same brush.
You and Scaredy represent two of the more thoughtful and well-informed posters on this board and to embrace this sort of monolithic viewpoint, candidly, is beneath you.
