At some point in the past, as a kid, likely upper elementary age, possibly middle school, I read a book about a world where color was not seen... until one day, a kid sees it. I loved the book and felt it was hopeful, but my husband read it and hated it. The visceral reaction he had to it made me question whether we'd actually read the same book. We had, and for many days, we had discussions over whether it was a happy or depressing ending. (There is a movie made of this book, and it is disappointment incarnate. I do not recommend.)
I've noticed a similar reaction to people in the church from myself. Where I see compassion, others see judgement. For many, "the Bible clearly says..." dictates their binary view of the world. See, in our current state of being, we are individuals making up a loose confederacy of other individuals. What's right for you may not be right for me. Obviously, if I am doing my own thing, and not hurting you, I'm not wrong. Likewise, there is an idea that what's right for me is right for everyone, regardless of context. For many, this is the world in which they see and read the Bible. It is this world of church that experiences a mass exodus of people. What the Bible "clearly says" and how people act on it show a very starkly black and white version of faith that is, to the best of my knowledge, thinly veiled Gnostic thought and works based gospel in 21st century clothing.
It's not that there is only one right way to read the Bible. Jewish scholars have debated what the Law means for millennia. Sadducees and Pharisees disagreed over essentially every little thing in the Bible. But there is a wrong way to read it. Sometime over last summer, my husband bought me a t-shirt that says "Bad Theology Kills." On a recent road trip, someone asked me what it meant. "Basically, any theology that others others is going to end poorly." I wish I could have explained to her what that meant more than that brief interlude on my way out of the truck stop door.
Jesus says that the two greatest commandments are to love God (a rephrasing of a law in Deuteronomy) and to love people. All laws, he says, are summed in those two. The Western Church really likes to cherry pick the verses in which we are right and the world around us is wrong, giving us a superiority complex that is antithetical to the Gospel. Paul writes in Philippians 2:3, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." How is it, then that the church, loves to claim and abuse power? How many headlines will there be of scandals?
I know it's human nature to separate good and bad, but my challenge isn't to see it as binary in that way. But let's also remember that when Jesus came to the world, it was not to separate good from bad, but to welcome His kingdom and restore earth to Himself.
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