The Bible is very clear…………or is it?
It’s Black History month. A month set aside to honor and celebrate the contributions of Black Americans in this country. It is well deserved for a people who have had to work hard to overcome the prejudices that the white folk of my generation and older have grown up with since childhood. Things have gotten better in the past 100 years but we are still a long way off from the day when people of all colors can look upon each other through the eyes of equality and love as fellow human beings.
When black people were first brought to this country, having been kidnapped from Africa, put on slave ships and bartered and sold to rich white people to work their land; their captors pointed to bible verses that clearly allowed slavery. They used the story of the curse of Ham in Genesis 9:18-27. Somehow, this narrative was twisted from it’s original meaning to prove that people with black skin (was Ham black??) were subhuman and when combined with text from the New Testament about slaves obeying their masters, (Ephesians 6:5-7) self-identified Christian slave traders and owners felt that they were right to lay claim to the lives other human beings. They could back it up with scripture.
For many years, the Jewish people were blamed for killing Jesus, basing their claims on scripture passages describing Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. “Such condemnations have plagued the Jewish people for the last two thousand years, acting as the fuel behind countless anti-Semitic atrocities throughout history.” - JewsforJesus.org
When European settlers discovered this continent, they assumed ownership of the land because of a doctrine stemming from the story of the taking of Canaan by the people of Israel. (Book of Joshua) The now Christian ‘chosen people’ as they thought of themselves, used scripture to justify their actions.
Rachel Held Evans wrote in her book, Inspired, “Any time the Bible is used to justify the oppression and exploitation of others, we have strayed far from the God who brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
Don’t get me wrong, I love reading scripture. But I believe that the Bible is to be read in context of when and by whom it was written. To use scripture to cause harm to any person or group of people is going against all that Jesus stood for and all that God commands us. (Mark 12:31)
Before we say, “The bible is very clear.....” we’d better look carefully at what we think is very clear and see if, in fact, it has not been taken out of context, translated incorrectly, or twisted to make it mean what we want it to mean. Our bible is a very complex collection of books with many authors and though as a whole it is revered as sacred, it has a history of misinterpretation for as long as it’s been in print.
So, lets read our bibles, let’s wrestle with what the text means for our lives today, read in the context of who it was written for and what was going on at the time. And let’s look at everything we read through the lens of Jesus’ love and the Grace offered to ALL people with his death and resurrection. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.
Peace,
Merryl Dietz
Feb 2, 2021