Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

Al Mohler Fit the Battle of Jericho and Inerrancy Came Tumblin' Down

by in Fundamentalism

The hallmark of modern Christian fundamentalism is an unwavering adherence to the notion of Biblical inerrancy. In its most extreme forms, belief in the inerrancy of the Bible stifles inquiry, perpetuates ignorance and glorifies dogmatism.

A prime example of the head-in-the-sand attitude that inerrancy engenders can be found in Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Al Mohler’s contribution to Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy (Zondervan).

Contributors to the book were asked to deal with several biblical texts that seemingly stand at odds with inerrancy. One of those texts is Joshua 6, about which the editors write:

We chose Joshua 6, since current archaeological and historiographical evidence calls into question the details of the text’s account … we wanted to see how Joshua 6 could still function as Scripture without being factually correct.

Joshua 6 contains the famous story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho: “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumblin’ down.” The problem this passages poses to inerrancy is summarized by Douglas King and Amy-Jill Levine in The Meaning of The Bible (HarperOne):

Archaeologists have long tested the evidence for the sweeping military campaign portrayed in the book of Joshua, and their results are not encouraging for a Late Bronze Age setting, sometime after Ramesses II during the 13th century BCE. The famed battle of Jericho cannot have happened, as no city and no walls existed at that time.… [Read more…] about Al Mohler Fit the Battle of Jericho and Inerrancy Came Tumblin' Down

Prostitutes, Virgins and Mothers: Questioning Teachings About Biblical Women

by in Book Reviews

In Prostitutes, Virgins and Mothers: Questioning Teachings About Biblical Women (Personhood Press, $16.95), Dr. Paula Trimble-Familetti sets out to do nothing less than overturn six thousand years of patriarchy, misogyny, and marginalization of women within Judaism and Christianity.

Does she succeed? Of course not: no single book can undo what has become so ingrained in our culture and religion. But she does add a powerful voice to the on-going fight for gender equality within the church, providing an accessible, thorough and Christocentric presentation of feminist theology.

Dr. Trimble-Familetti’s book tackles the issue head-on by re-telling, re-contextualizing, and re-interpreting the stories of virtually every woman in the Bible. Her calling to tell these stories is a passionate one:

I am fed up with traditional interpretations of Scripture. I believe there are different ways to interpret the Scriptures, interpretations from the perspective of a twenty-first century woman, a perspective vastly different from that of a first-, second- or any other -century man. I write this book because my God, my Creator, in whose image and likeness I am created, has called me to write it.

Trimble-Familetti crafts first-person narratives that wrestle with the issues and challenges faced by women in the Bible. Though the accounts are necessarily speculative, she nevertheless strives to retain fidelity to the text as we have received it as well as the socio-historical context in… [Read more…] about Prostitutes, Virgins and Mothers: Questioning Teachings About Biblical Women

What to Do About ISIS: A Christian's Anguish

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

When I think about ISIS and what our response as a nation should be to their reign of terror my soul is in anguish.

Why the anguish? Does ISIS not completely devalue human life and are they not committed to the utter destruction and mass enslavement of all people who refuse to surrender allegiance to them? Does this not warrant the use of military action to stop them?

The reason I am in anguish is because I take seriously the nonviolent life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth whom I strive to follow. In the temptation narrative Jesus renounces the option of wielding power as a means of accomplishing God’s will. In his conflict with the religious and political powers of his day, Jesus chooses the way of suffering every time instead of the way of violence. At the time of his arrest he tells his disciples, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matt. 26:52). Jesus dies powerless and mocked, absorbing the animosity of his tormentors without wishing them harm.

Less we think this was somehow unique to Jesus, he instructed any would-be follower to renounce all violence by taking up his or her cross and getting in line behind him (Matt. 16:24). He even told his disciples to love their enemies by praying for them and doing good to them (Matt. 5:38-48). In his letter to the Romans, Paul echoes basically this same teaching (Rom. 12:14-21).

Not all Christians have or do take Jesus’ teaching on love of enemies… [Read more…] about What to Do About ISIS: A Christian's Anguish

Dr. Albert Mohler versus musician Michael Gungor: Who is on the verge of theological peril?

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues, Christian Spirituality

Dove Award-winning Christian musician Michael Gungor has been taking a hit from some of his evangelical fans for saying that he has no more ability to believe that Adam and Eve were literal persons who lived 6,000 years ago or that “a flood covered all the highest mountains of the world only 4,000 years ago” than he is able “to believe in Santa Clause or to not believe in gravity.”

In a recent podcast Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist flagship seminary in Louisville, claims that Gungor “is shifting into theological reverse, moving right back to the last decades of the 19th century.” According to Mohler, Gungor’s ideas are the result of Protestant liberalism, “which also came over to the United States [from Germany], infecting many denominations and seminaries.”

I mean, really, Dr. Mohler? Since when is learning how to think a disease?

What Dr. Mohler doesn’t say is that practically all mainline biblical scholarship rejects the inerrantist view of the Bible and the literal interpretation of the creation story and flood narrative. Even many evangelical scholars who still cling in theory to biblical inerrancy (they are forced to sign faith statements in that regard) reject the literal reading of the early chapters of Genesis.

Actually, throughout most of the history of the church the literal meaning of a biblical text was deemed the least important reading by many Christian scholars and teachers. The literal reading was often compared to the physical body,… [Read more…] about Dr. Albert Mohler versus musician Michael Gungor: Who is on the verge of theological peril?

The murder of James Foley, ISIS, and Religions of Peace

by in Christian History, Current Events

While discussing the news of the murder of journalist James Foley at the hands of ISIS, a friend of mine posed to me the question: “What does it say about your religion when you have to kill people who won’t convert?”

If the religion in question is Islam, then Foley’s murder says virtually nothing about Muslim belief. The death of Foley is deplorable. The actions of ISIS are despicable. But atrocities committed by ISIS are no more representative of Muslim belief than the actions of extremist Christians are representative of mainstream Christianity.

What extremist Christians? Surely Christians have never killed those who wouldn’t convert? Surely Christians would never slaughter men, women and children in the name of their faith?

Before we conflate the extremism of ISIS with the entire religion of Islam, let’s keep in mind the checkered history of Christianity.

In The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account, the sixteenth century Spanish historian and priest Bartolomé de Las Casas describes the genocide inflicted by the Christian conquistadors upon the native peoples of Haiti and Cuba (warning, descriptions of graphic violence):
And the Christians, with their horses and swords and pikes began to carry out massacres and strange cruelties against them. They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if… [Read more…] about The murder of James Foley, ISIS, and Religions of Peace

The real tragedy of Ferguson isn't on TV

by in Current Events, Uncategorized

#453804768 / gettyimages.com

The ongoing unrest in Ferguson, Missouri is a sobering reminder of the state of racial relations in the United States, and of the out-of-control militarization of our police force. But I fear that the real tragedy of Ferguson is that it’s destined to become nothing more than a momentary blip on the radar of history, one that, despite the historically agonizing cries of “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” will result in no meaningful change. Here’s some of why I fear that:

The social, economic, cultural and racial issues now writ so large in Ferguson are systemic. No single protest can release the nearly 1 million black males currently in prison. No one protest can change the poverty rate for blacks being more than twice that of whites. As media unfriendly as it is, the plain truth is that resolving the problems that caused the situation in Ferguson will take comprehensive and long-term approaches.
The power resides with the status quo. America’s rich, white, male power structure has the time and the resources to withstand any siege such as the Ferguson protests. Just ask the “one percent” how well the Occupy Wall Street protests worked.
The real revolution won’t be televised. Night after night powerful images are coming out of Ferguson, helping to reinforce a narrative that is ultimately as destructive as anything happening there. Images of protestors throwing back tear gas canisters, of police officers dressed in full military garb and clearly ready to… [Read more…] about The real tragedy of Ferguson isn't on TV

A poet, like a priest, works with facts and mysteries: the poetry of Spencer Reece

by in Book Reviews

Poet and Episcopal priest Spencer Reece’s recent book, The Road To Emmaus (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $24.00), is a warm and generous collection of narrative poems that explores life with humble insight and restrained brilliance.

Reece writes about his family’s history, a relationship formed in a coming-out support group, friendship with his AA sponsor, seminary life, and his experiences as a hospital and prison chaplain. Poetry about love and death and God risks succumbing to saccharine sentimentality, but Reece approaches these subjects with an honest clarity and gentle lyricism that is refreshing. Re-reading passages in preparation for this review, I found myself again and again being pulled into these poems, poems that after only a few readings already feel intimately familiar.

Lines such as these from the book’s opening poem “ICU” linger and haunt:

In the neonatal ICU, newborns breathed,
blue, spider-delicate in a nest of tubes.
A Sunday of themselves, their tissue purpled,
their eyelids the film on old water in a well,
their faces resigned in plastic attics,
their skin mottled mildewed wallpaper.
It is correct to love even at the wrong time.
On rounds, the newborns eyed me, each one
like Orpheus in his dark hallway, saying:
I knew I would find you, I knew I would lose you.

Reece’s poetry is accessible without being trite, full of evocative imagery, intriguing personalities, and compelling stories. This collection is a thoughtful exploration of the… [Read more…] about A poet, like a priest, works with facts and mysteries: the poetry of Spencer Reece

Baptist pastor calls for sexually ethical understanding of divorce

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

What would a modern day Jesus-inspired sexual ethic look like? Did Jesus teach a sexual ethic? I believe that he did, though not explicitly. Biblical fundamentalists who like to claim that the Bible’s teaching is clear about any number of complex issues will find little in the Gospels to support the claim that Jesus is clear on all matters sexual in nature.

What Jesus does say relative to a sexual ethic, however, must be viewed within the broader perspective of that which constituted the critical core of all his teaching. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment in the law, he responded,
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40).
And lest we look for some wiggle room in the way we define “neighbor,” Jesus closed that door by teaching (at Matt. 5:44-45) that our neighbor even includes the “enemy” who wants to do us harm :
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
This teaching emphasizes that the love ethic embodied and taught by Jesus provides a guiding beacon, a compass that charts the course of God’s will for human beings. Everything Jesus did and said must ultimately relate to this essential demand: love God with the… [Read more…] about Baptist pastor calls for sexually ethical understanding of divorce

Stupid Religion

by Steve Schmidt in Christian Issues, Christian Spirituality

This guest post is by Steve Schmidt.

I just had another one of those conversations. The conversation I seem to have a lot these days with my Christian friends, gay and straight, about what it means to be a Christian.

Am I still a “good Christian” if I don’t go to church? Am I a good Christian if I cuss, if I have sex with my girlfriend or boyfriend? And of course, that one question that seems to preoccupy the evangelical world right now: Can I be a good Christian if I’m gay?

Franklin Graham, the hostile son of that epitome of Christian kindness Billy Graham, thinks not. And he’s spouting his morality-driven view of Christianity in all the media. For him, and for many in the church world, Christianity is defined in terms of do’s and don’ts. Rules. Outward behavior.

And ya know, to some extent, I would agree with that. But only to the extent that “behavior” is defined as how we treat other people.

Christianity, at least for most Protestants, is defined by our faith in Jesus, and then how that faith translates into real life. More than simple head-knowledge or just believing that something is true, it is the transformational power of a relationship with the Living God that defines us–proves us–to be true followers of Jesus. That, and that alone, is what makes us “good” Christians.

That’s what I’ve come to conclude–after living my entire life in the church, growing up in a conservative evangelical home, going to an… [Read more…] about Stupid Religion

Do these jokes make me look fat?

by Angela Fields in Christian Spirituality

Body dysmorphia is like a special kind of astigmatism. A pair of glasses can fix the normal kind of astigmatism, but there aren’t corrective lenses for the body kind. I happen to have both. Since I regularly lose my glasses, I end up relying on others to reflect reality to me—whether that means reading street names aloud while I’m driving, or telling me that I look like a normal, healthy human being.

The way my dysmorphia works is that I look in the mirror, or shop windows, or any terrifyingly reflective surface, and see a whale. Everyone else looks at me and sees a tall, unremarkable-looking girl of average BMI (body mass index). I look down at my medium-sized clothes and wonder how they’re even containing my bulk. I walk up the sidewalk in amazement that cracks aren’t forming in the cement beneath me. At Starbucks I try not to let anyone see me pouring cream into my coffee, so that I won’t offend the other patrons, whom I’m sure would like to think that someone as large as me is at least trying to change her ways.

You might be thinking, “Wow, an entirely warped view of things! Is her view of everything warped?” Sadly, I don’t get to look around and see ballooning Dr. Seuss table legs on the coffee table, or massive squirrels in the trees being miraculously supported by frightfully narrow branches. My funhouse mirror vision applies only to me.

I look at my reflection as a blob overflowing its intended human frame, and feel like an irresponsible child who… [Read more…] about Do these jokes make me look fat?