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Title: Why Evangelical Bible Idolatry Sucks and Why I Go to a Greek Orthodox Church Even Though It’s A Mess Too
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URL Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/franks ... ch-even-though-its-a-mess-too/
Published: Nov 13, 2012
Author: Frank Schaeffer
Post Date: 2012-11-20 11:40:58 by mininggold
Keywords: None
Views: 5153
Comments: 16
Why Evangelical Bible Idolatry Sucks and Why I Go to a Greek Orthodox Church Even Though It’s A Mess Too November 13, 2012 By Frank Schaeffer Having elevated the Bible — or at least the nicer bits that they like — to the status of a magic book evangelicals have demoted God. Their “god” is trapped in a book and kept somewhat like a tame rat inside the cage of “biblical inerrancy.” Since the evangelical/fundamentalists worship a book rather than God they can’t admit that the Bible has flaws and is just plain crazy in places. So they spend lifetimes working to make “sense” of something nonsensical, mean and stupid. Why Bible idolatry is a particularly evangelical/fundamentalist blind spot is that, unlike earlier Christianity—at least in the more enlightened non-retributive threads of church history, evangelical/fundamentalist Protestants have forgotten and/or banished the idea that an oral tradition coexisted with the Bible within the life of the Church. They also have forgotten that some of the earliest Christians wrote that God is not to be defined or hedged in by Bible-derived “theology,” even by descriptions about him in the Bible. And evangelicals have subverted the teaching and life of Jesus because the idea that love trumps theology makes them nervous. Love trumping theology is “why” I’ll be in my local Greek Orthodox church next Sunday with my grandchildren: Lucy age 4 and Jack age 2. Church is one of the places where my grandchildren can be lovingly swooped up. “Swooping up” covers everything from being waved to by choir members, picked up and/or patted by a multitude of “little old ladies,” offered snacks during the service when we wander to the church hall where coffee hour is being set up and start munching early, and of course going to our eccentric Sunday school where a friendly chaos reigns that — thankfully — precludes most teaching. This loving “swooping up” also changes brains by producing a sense of benign tribal belonging, in this case to a mostly benevolent tribe. It isn’t about correct belief, let alone if the Bible is “true” (whatever that means) but about the brain-changing effect of community and the humbling mystery of unconditional love experienced in the “ordinary” in a sacramental context. This isn’t a theological concept to which you must assent. It’s as practical and measurable as doing dishes for 10 hours after the annual food festival fund raising event. That’s where a “stranger” I’d seen around church but didn’t know became a friend as we worked together in 90-degree heat over a slop-filled sink. By the end of the evening, I’d told her more about myself and she’d told me more about herself than I would have thought possible, such as how embarrassed I was as a child victim of polio by having to wear an iron leg brace and how chagrined she was at having had 3 divorces. Somehow the context of working together for something bigger than either of us – sustaining our community – provided a free pass to sharing our inner selves. We did dishes and exchanged stories. I’m not as nice as my fellow dishwasher probably thinks I am, but since I’m a pretty good listener she never knew that I started out our time together not very interested in our conversation and inwardly cursing myself for volunteering for the cleanup crew. But I acted the part and she bought the act. Then somewhere along the way, I stopped acting and became the part. That’s been a pattern of Orthodox teaching: act right then get into the habit of actually being what you’re pretending to be. That is what the sacraments are: playacting at virtue until it is real to us and we “see” with inner eyes and perhaps encounter the divine. There are never good reasons for major choices. In fact there are no “good reasons” for anything, including what churches we join or don’t. Life is short and we humans are only minimally evolved. So between too few years and too few brain cells we don’t have enough information to make any choice. A best guess is all any choice really is. When it comes to buying household appliances I have reasonably good information. I can spend 10 minutes online and learn what washing machine to buy. But when it comes to the existence of God, what church to join, who to marry or where to live there’s never been a “good reason.” Life just happens. Grownups admit this. Only teens and theologians think they know anything. Our universe is old and we are young. Given that our life span is more like a fruit flies’ than a planet’s we have to settle for best guess intuition not facts. But because other people ask us why we did thus or so we invent “reasons” in hindsight to “support” our guesses. To believe something – rather than just stumbling into a malleable opinion — you’d have to have considered all the options. And that’s impossible. There’s always one more book to read. So what we actually mean by saying “I believe this or that” is “I think” or “I hope” or “ I’ve settled on this because my parents said so” or “I earn my living by being a pastor so I’m not about to question my creed” or “I have to believe this because my wife does” or “I need to hold on to something so I choose to believe this.” What we never can honestly say is “I believe this because I know it is true. I know that because I’ve explored all other possibilities completely and lived every sort of life in every place and time, including the future and I’ve proven this is true. There are no other alternatives.” Since we don’t like to admit that our mortality and primitive half-baked brains preclude fact-based certainties, we invent theologies both religious and secular that are closer to superstitions than facts. Then we assure ourselves and others that we have “good reasons” to believe this or that. We say things like “I married the woman God led me to.” Anyone even minimally honest knows that what we really mean is: “Out of the tiny fraction of women I met I married Genie and things have worked out well so I like to dress this lucky break up by saying ‘God led me to Genie’ because that sounds better than saying, ‘I happened to meet her because she hadn’t yet listened to the Beatles’ album ‘Abby Road.’ I had the record and that’s how I lured her to my room, slept with her and 43 years later found myself with 3 children and 4 grandchildren and a life. But the fact is I never did get to sleep with all the other women in the world let alone buy them each a cup of coffee so I have no idea who else I could have been as happy with or even happier with.” Which is a roundabout way to admit that I have no good reasons — other than grace — for why I’ve been going to my local Greek Orthodox church for the last 25 years or why I’ve been married to Genie for 42 years. That said here are some random hindsight self-justifying thoughts in no particular order of importance on what is less a “free will” choice about where I go to church than something to do with genetics, psychology and brain chemistry and where I happen to live and in what time. Since the answer “I haven’t a clue” to the question “Why did you leave the evangelicals and join the Orthodox Church?” isn’t going to provide much satisfaction to readers I’ve come up with a few random reasons. First, Mom and Dad conditioned me to feel guilty if I don’t go to church. Second, these days I like church because I love taking my grandchildren and Orthodox liturgy is aesthetically pleasing: no guitars or histrionic preaching, lots of candles to light, incense to smell, things to kiss stuff to march around with in processions and no one cares if you arrive late. Third, since I’m no longer a Protestant let alone an evangelical I’m working to get the ringing out of my ears caused by too many sermons and great liturgies reprogram my brain. This is something like moving from a Chicago winter to the Bahamas. Fourth, I encounter God in the liturgy– or rather “encounter” the part of my brain that feels like its encountering God. Fifth, anything religious that dresses up faith in the garb of mystery is a welcome break from the rationalistic absurd entirely circular Calvinistic “certainties” on which I was raised. Sixth, in the Orthodox Church I’m free to pick and choose how I interpret our traditions since our worship is liturgy-based rather than theology-based. Theology is defined as prayer, not rules about belief because salvation is seen as a journey not a series of one time juridical events – in or out “salvation” experiences. Who you are, not what you believe is what’s important. In that sense you could be a “good Orthodox” and also an atheist– at least some of the time because doubt is not looked down on. What the evangelical/fundamentalists (of the kind I used to be myself) rarely seem to admit is that by necessity fundamentalists also pick and choose what they believe. In that sense everyone is a liberal. Fundamentalists’ commitment to truth is as fluid as anyone’s. They just lie about it. Their claim of consistent belief in the Bible is two-faced. If fundamentalists didn’t pick and choose by omission if not by commission, they’d all be in jail— literally. Seen any adulterers stoned to death in a church lately? And if they all “believed in the Bible” there would be no denominational splits because the Holy Spirit” doesn’t lie (they say) and so all sincere Christians would be guided to the truth and agree on what the Bible “says.” Above all the Bible-worshiping evangelicals have ignored the fact that – ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN THEOLOGY — there is a supreme lens through which to edit the meaner stupider bits of the Bible. Jesus is the lens. If Jesus is God then Jesus has the right to contradict the very imperfect book in which he has the misfortune to have his biography trapped. Jesus transcends the book he’s trapped in. He does this because he is the perfect fulfillment of an imperfect human tradition. And the book in which his story is told is only enlightening when read retroactively through the eyes of Jesus. We need to read the Bible beginning from the gospel narrative not from the book of Genesis. If Jesus is Lord only reading the Bible backward starting with him makes sense. Jesus does not “fit” any “biblical interpretation,” which makes the text less important than him. Jesus introduces the transforming possibility of nonviolence and forgiveness to our retributive primate way of being human that ensnares the rest of the Bible. See more at link.
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#1. To: mininggold (#0)
I see Frankie Schaeffer is still embarrassing himself. Living in the huge shadow of his father is hard.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct[a] your paths.(Proverbs 3:5-6)
Maybe you can be a bit more specific, as the shooting of messengers among you guys is getting rather old and stale.
Almost every country in the Middle East is awash in oil, and we have to side with the one that has nothing but joos. Goddamn, that was good thinkin'. Esso posted on 2012-01-13 7:37:56 ET
Rotten ! Evolution is not science ! Science * is - from ... God --- creation ! Evolution is elephant droppings - chicken entrail reading - witch doctors - gypsy star gazing - muttering loons ! * Love - sex - procreation too ! Not anything weird like the mudskipping liberals are - doing !
If you ... don't use exclamation points --- you should't be typeing ! Commas - semicolons - question marks are for girlie boys !
Pretty good opening line.
. Frankie Schaeffer is the son of the great Christian philosopher and writer Francis Schaeffer. I guess the only thing that rubbed off on Frankie was the name.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct[a] your paths.(Proverbs 3:5-6)
People do hate the Holy Bible. That is because the words of God point out to man that he is condemned in the eyes of God and all of man's "good intentions" and man's ways to salvation are fruitless.
Evidently you don't see the Bible through the lens of Jesus then.
Almost every country in the Middle East is awash in oil, and we have to side with the one that has nothing but joos. Goddamn, that was good thinkin'. Esso posted on 2012-01-13 7:37:56 ET
So, enlighten me.
Read the article and then the New Testament.
Almost every country in the Middle East is awash in oil, and we have to side with the one that has nothing but joos. Goddamn, that was good thinkin'. Esso posted on 2012-01-13 7:37:56 ET
So, you are saying that you made a wild comment and now can't back it up?
Miningold, I'm leaving the computer for awhile. I will get back to this thread. I'm very interested in your response.
LOLOL I'm looking for some more of your selective circular reasoning. But since you already admitted that God is responsible for everything that occurs in this world, why worry, because EVERYTHING is beyond our control. But Jesus didn't say that did he? So.... does love trump theology or not? Because the opposite can't be true.
Almost every country in the Middle East is awash in oil, and we have to side with the one that has nothing but joos. Goddamn, that was good thinkin'. Esso posted on 2012-01-13 7:37:56 ET
Mininggold, perhaps you can't understand this; however, theology is all about the love of God for His Creation. I realize that you are simply trying to display your superior reasoning and knowledge, but there is something else you may not understand. There is God's Wisdom and there is man's wisdom. The two things don't run together. There is something else you don't understand that you should. Christians will be alive and with God a million years from now; however, time won't stop there because there will be no such thing as time in eternity. Where will you be? It doesn't look good for you unless God gives you His mercy. What was I getting at before that you have a problem understanding? I said that man cannot save himself and is condemned. Christ came as a sacrifice for man's condemnation. Those who accept Christ as Savior will be saved. That is the message that Christ gave the world. If you reject it, you have serious problems ahead. That is your call.
There is something else you don't understand that you should. Christians will be alive and with God a million years from now; however, time won't stop there because there will be no such thing as time in eternity. Where will you be? It doesn't look good for you unless God gives you His mercy. What was I getting at before that you have a problem understanding? I said that man cannot save himself and is condemned. Christ came as a sacrifice for man's condemnation. Those who accept Christ as Savior will be saved. That is the message that Christ gave the world. If you reject it, you have serious problems ahead. That is your call. What a wonderful post, Don, I whole heartedly agree with you, and enjoyed reading it very much.
"A friend will calm you down when you are angry, but a best friend will skip beside you with a baseball bat singing, "someone's gonna get it"
The site in Turkey - Gobekli Tepi,....is dated to 9000 BC! There are 21 ring sites of megalithic blocks...with beautifully carved/etched reliefs on them.....some match exactly to stellar constellation patterns in the night sky,...a form of pre Zodiac,..if you will. So...where is your Mythical Jesus and YHWH for these races of beings...or peoples who built Gobekli Tepi?
Yes, we know. Christianity is all bluff and myth. Unfortunately, for those who reject God and come up with all sorts of reasons why Christianity is wrong, God still rules His Universe and detractors have a short shelf life.
#2. To: redleghunter (#1)
(Edited)
I see Frankie Schaeffer is still embarrassing himself. Living in the huge shadow of his father is hard.
#3. To: mininggold (#2)
old - stale.
#4. To: mininggold (#0)
Having elevated the Bible — or at least the nicer bits that they like — to the status of a magic book evangelicals have demoted God.
Say hi to your mom for me.
#5. To: mininggold (#2)
see Frankie Schaeffer is still embarrassing himself. Living in the huge shadow of his father is hard. Maybe you can be a bit more specific, as the shooting of messengers among you guys is getting rather old and stale.
#6. To: mininggold (#0)
#7. To: Don (#6)
That is because the words of God point out to man that he is condemned in the eyes of God and all of man's "good intentions" and man's ways to salvation are fruitless.
#8. To: mininggold (#7)
Evidently you don't see the Bible through the lens of Jesus then.
#9. To: Don (#8)
So, enlighten me.
#10. To: mininggold (#9)
Read the article and then the New Testament.
#11. To: All (#10)
(Edited)
#12. To: Don (#10)
(Edited)
So, you are saying that you made a wild comment and now can't back it up?
#13. To: mininggold (#12)
#14. To: Don (#13)
Mininggold, perhaps you can't understand this; however, theology is all about the love of God for His Creation. I realize that you are simply trying to display your superior reasoning and knowledge, but there is something else you may not understand. There is God's Wisdom and there is man's wisdom. The two things don't run together.
#15. To: Don (#13)
(Edited)
I said that man cannot save himself and is condemned. Christ came as a sacrifice for man's condemnation. Those who accept Christ as Savior will be saved.
At Tiwanaku in the Andes....buried under 6ft of flood alluvial detritus
Arthur Posnansky found the skeletons of Giants....with 3x size heads vs man of our time...and they are elongated...natural,...not head binding.
infact....the Nazca region has produced 2 known evidence's skeleton wise of fetus'/unborn...with elongated skulls of same pattern.
Posnansky spent decades researching the region...and dated these 3x skulls to 13,000 bc...and suggested they could go back well into the 30,000 yrs window.
David Flynn..using google earth map discovered ground terrain removal,,,on an area of thousands of sq miles.....not just topsoil...but rock...removed in grids...some bigger then 3 - 747 aircraft in scale.
Arthur Posnansky found the Giants burried in flood detritus...ontop**...above the terrain grids.
so...someone/some race was removing rock and doing so up hill and mountainsides...and into valleys....1000's of sq miles.....in the Pleistocene Era!!
You Christians make claims....but actual evidence on the ground...says mankind,...and other races have been socio organized...and studying the heavens....6000 years before even the Hurrian culture circa Akkad and Sumer appeared....the IB.RU's are a socio group from inside the Hurrian/Sumer region cultural crossover.
#16. To: Parrot with speed dial (#15)
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