Jared & Pete talk with Brian McLaren about the dangers of a “weaponized Bible” and how our own bias and interpretation may cause us to reach some incomplete conclusions.
The Bible As A Weapon with Brian McLaren
1 min read
The Bible For Normal People
Great stuff from Brian, as ever; thanks guys for having him on. One note: the woman who (rightly) challenged David’s statement in Psalm 51 that “Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” and was indignant that it was Bathsheba and her husband who were “sinned against.” Well, I’m inclined to think “yes and no!” They were abused, offended against,indeed, murdered by proxy, certainly, but ‘sin’ is a covenant issue between God and us as part of his creation so when we abuse, offend, dehumanise, murder – these are crimes against the person which come out of our rebellion to God, often denoted as “sin”. In that sense, God is the one actually SINNED against. Probably!
Towards the end of the discussion, B. McLaren talks about a book that discusses “whether we see God as violent.” How should we combine the violent and non-violent pictures of God in the Bible? A couple of days ago a young friend posted a comment, “Imagine meeting someone who wanted to learn your past not to punish you, but to understand how you needed to be loved.” That sounds great, but I can’t match it to a picture from the bible. I mostly remember the passages of the bible that bring up the past as courtroom evidence for reward or punishment (see, e.g., Mt. 25:31 ff., the whole book of Rev., etc.). Is that twisted, is it culture-induced, or is it a pretty good representation of the available material? Thanks.
Also, I didn’t choose the icon. HAH!