How did Christianity get Frozen
Alright folks, this blog is not meant to presaude anybody of anything. If you are not religious, you can stay un-religious. If you are offended by the whole idea of belief in God, then just let it slide knowing that this blog is really not for you. By the same token, if you have strong religious beliefs, for example, that homosexuals are hated by God, or those that have children outside wedlock are bound for hell, you have no place here either. And, no I dont want to read a list of scripture that "prove" your point.
That being said, why am I writting on this topic at all? Well, the bottom line, I guiess, is that I want to. My blog, my choice of topic. One day I might decide to write about the Great Spaggetti Monster, but today, I want to write 'bout my take on Christian history. It wont be "proved" by lots of references to particular great (or not so great) writers...quoting powerful decisive passages from arcane books. What it will be is my personal logical analysis based on some recent reading, but with lots of feeling, intuiting, and just plain guessing.
As some of you know, I was raised in a very traditional...make that fundamentalist, household. My father knew what God demanded, and He demanded a great deal. Anger was suspect..altought despise his verbage, my tather never got rid of his own capacity for anger. Incidentially my backside felt ample proof of that. Other things that he believed were that those that had sex without being married were headed for hell, and altought he never mentioned the topic, probably homosexuals as well. He even expressed concern because a guy he knew had makeup on his face after being embalmed. God might not realize him and send him to hell because of that makeup.
Does it surprise anybody that I had trouble fitting in, both into his family and the church he attended? My father never questioned anything he was taught, regardless how well or ill they actually embodied what they were teaching, and I never heard a statement that I didnt think deserved to be questioned. Not a pretty picture at all.
Being raised in such an unquestioning, inclduing the lack of acceptance of those that DO question, situation, , I took confort in finding other churches that believed other things. I got so "caught up" in Catholicism at one point (seen by my father as the Anti-Christ) that my mother, at one point, would have sworn that I would grow up to be Catholic. No, that wasnt the point. I did, however, see that there a wideness of possible belief that wasnt even thought of, much less considered deeply, by my father and his church. I once made the statement that I had discovered that "no matter how crazy an idea I came up, someone has thought of it before". I LIKED that, because I like exploration of ideas..I find it exciting.
Over the years, I have become convinced that Christianity somehow got FROZEN, at least in the hearts and minds of some people. People who believe that the Bible is God's inspired words, and therefor is to be accepted literally, are, in my mind the reason for this frozen nature.
Historically, this level of literalism is recent. In fact, it is part of the "scientific" age. Sceience believes that you can trust what your experiements indicate if the result is the same several times. Such rationalism was too much for some religious folk, so they resoluted to Fundamentalism. If Science could and would claim to know the truth, they by jove they would do likewise. Now in reality, obviously, this was not a conscious decision. It was done by instinct because of the threat they preceived in the scientific "truths'" being discovered. But the result was a dogged devotion to the words in the Bible as it appeared before them as thought it was somehow proved by the fact that it still existed. In coming to that conclusion, I believe they got the wrong message...the spirit lost out to the written static statements in print.
What they lost sight of, or maybe never realized was there in the first place, was the mythic nature of the writtings in the Bible to begin with. Many, if not all of the stories reported were not meant to be taken literally to begin with. That were just that, stories...but stories that were meant to teach a lesson...giving a way of undestanding the world as it was and is.
Karen Armstrong has written severall books, and in at least two of them, she looks at the history of religion, whether primal or specifically Christain. What she sees is mythic stories that were meant to point to a truth about how the world operates. She goes so far as to relate that at certain times in history, in both the Jewish and Christian faith, the emphasis has been om coming up with new, exciting meaning for the words. Much of the Talmaudic writting was done by students, as well as instructors being free to "write in the margins' on religious texts. Furthermore, the old was not to be more revered than the new, but accepted as another piece of the puzzle.
So, now, what many people seem to have is a frozen Bible. If it doesnt say "it" in the 2000 or so pages of that book, or at least be intrepreted logically and obviously from words there, it aint true. The book that was, at one time, a source of excitement and expansion...that taught people continueally new and more ambitious ways of relating to God and/or all that is holy, has become in hands of some, a rule book to be slavishly followed...literally.
I would argure that regardless of statements to the contrary, nobody follows the words LITERALLY. The most "literal minded" will balk at certain passages, and even resort to sayng "that doesnt make sense" or "that is metaphorical". Too often it is just those parts that seem to be the more difficult. Other things, often things, that are not even tempting to the individual or group (like homosexuality to a really heteroxexual person) are never questioned, nor are others "allowed" to question them in front of these people..
I believe in the Bible, as I have said before. I believe in it as a history of man's struggling to be in relationship with what is seen as divine. When used wisely, the Bible has things to say that speak to the heart and encourage more kindness and generousity. At it's worse, however, it can be used, and often is, as a way of condemning others while basking in the glow of one's own acceptablity. And all that from "THE GREAT BOOK"...THIS, I call Biblidotary. And, once it is a book to be worshiped as 'THE TRUTH" it is so incredibly hard to find new insights. It becomes what, in my opinion it was never meant to be, an argurment for the status quo.