When the Bible becomes an idol
One of the main ideas I’ve learned thus far from my study of counseling psychology is simple but important: As human beings, we’re inseparable from our own stories and contexts.
In other words, it’s impossible to divorce ourselves from our families of origin, our cultures, our races, our ethnicity, our social classes, our religions, our nationalities, our genetics, the historical contexts in which we live, and so on and so on.
All of these factors — and many others — influence us deeply, and we carry pieces of them with us as we interact with the world. We’re never, ever a blank slate — not even while we’re still in the womb. The contexts into which we’re born were already shaping us long before we were even a glimmer in our parents’ eyes, so to speak.
As a 30-something white American man born and raised in a First World setting at a particular time in world history, I will bring my unique story and humanity to every encounter I have with patients in a future therapeutic context. My patients in turn will bring theirs.
It’s simply unavoidable; and no relationship I have with one patient will be exactly the same as the one I have with another, because all of our stories and personal contexts are unique.
The same would be true if I had lived millennia ago and had penned a document that would ultimately end up in the compilation we now know as the Christian Bible. My writing and the story and perspectives contained within would be heavily influenced by the context in which I live. There’s simply no way around that.
It’s through this framework that I approach the debate over scriptural authority, and it’s by this standard that I make an argument that would inevitably be branded as heresy by many.
I have no problem with depicting the Bible as a source of God’s revelation. However, I have a big problem with depicting it as the only source — or an “infallible” source that somehow trumps all others.
Let me go back to my own story for a second. Say that I had been born and raised in a rural African village instead of Evanston, Illinois, a college town and upscale suburb of Chicago. I can tell you with confidence that my view of the world — of reality — would be very different right now. Again, there’s no way around that. And that’s just one piddly example.
Similarly, the people who wrote the words of the Bible (and yes, they were very much people, not God) did not do so overnight. They did so over very different times and places, none of which are remotely close to being the same as the contexts in which we live as I write this and you read it.
It would be as if I wrote a blog post from my perspective about what the city of Seattle looks like and feels like in the year 2015 — and someone many centuries from now were to declare my writing to be sacred, an “infallible” representation of how all cities and civilizations should look and operate for all eternity in all contexts and at all times in history.
Nonsense. And it would still be nonsense even if others’ writings were added to my own as sacred documents that can be viewed holistically as “infallible.” They can’t be infallible, either holistically or individually, because human beings are not infallible, either holistically or individually.
In reply to that argument, I often hear the assertion that the authors of the Bible were “inspired” or “called” by God to write the words that they did, so it’s different.
I won’t dispute that premise, but I will note its telling irony: The Bible itself is chock full of stories of human beings who were “inspired” or “called” by God to serve divine purposes despite their flaws and limitations, which often surfaced during the course of the work they were doing.
Which leads back to my argument: The Bible can be viewed as one source of God’s revelation — and I certainly believe that it is — but it cannot be viewed as a perfect or supreme source.
In fact, if you view the Bible as perfect, supreme, or infallible, you’re arguably equating the Bible with God Herself. Which means you’ve turned the Bible into an idol.
Want to see some evidence of that? Here you go:
In essence, what Rick Warren seems to be saying is this: “If what you’re doing or who you are or what you believe is at odds with what I personally think the authors of the Bible meant, you’re wrong, and I can judge you for it.” (For purposes of discussion, I’m assuming he means the Bible when he says “God’s Word.” Even if that’s not what he means, my point stands.)
See how dangerous that is? Or, let me rephrase that: See how off-putting that is?
Do you think words like his draw questioning souls closer to the mystery of God?
God is mysterious. God is infinite. God is eternal. God cannot be reduced to a book, or a person, or a place, or a time, or a group of people. All of those things contain truth, but none singlehandedly hold the Truth, and that includes the Bible.
A lot of Christians would read this and call me a heretic for saying it. But you know what I actually think is heresy?
I think it’s heresy when we suggest that words written thousands of years ago in contexts completely foreign to our own are judged to be more important than the lives, stories, and identities of people who live now and are created in the very image of God.
I think it’s heresy when the Bible gets used as a weapon — when it’s used to control, demonize, punish, or exclude people because of who they are or what they do or what they believe.
When we use the Bible this way, we’re implying — intentionally or not — that God’s story is over. Finished. Dead. That it’s not still being written or unveiled. That it’s limited to what’s contained within the pages of a book. That it can’t be located anywhere else. That its intricacies are not still being woven at this very second through the lives and stories of us.
If we honestly believe that God is eternal or boundless, why then do we limit Her that way?
The Bible is sacred and is a source of God’s revelation. But so is creation, and most importantly, so are people. None is complete, perfect, or superior by itself.
And if you think the Bible is, there’s a good chance you’ve turned it into a god of your own.
