I must admit that I'm as good a "cherry picker" as anyone. I used
to find it entertaining to pull select texts from the Bible to "prove"
all kinds of things, to approve almost any behavior, and especially to
show that the Holy Scriptures could be used to justify "sins" that we
hadn't even imagined yet.
Yes, I know that the Bible was used not only to justify, but inspire
slavery, the conquest of the Americas, the murderous Crusades, and the
Inquisition, but that was a long time ago. I already posted my
thoughts on "What Lot has to Teach Us"
regarding the use of the Sodom and Gomorrah story as a standard for
sexual morality. I found the "Letter to Dr. Laura," (scroll down to comments) on Chuck Currie's blog, hilarious.
Lately, however, "Christians" are using the Bible to
justify killing hundreds of thousands of people at the expense of our
children, our poor, our educational system, medical care. . . See
"Christian Priorities"?
Tomorrow a well-known Old Testament scholar is coming to the university
where I teach. In past years I would have been excited about his
presentation on how scripture can be used to support peace, but my
enthusiasm for what Sam Harris calls "cherry picking" (Letter to a Christian Nation)
has seriously waned. I'm sure that the speaker has spent years
finding those texts that sound peaceful and show a loving God, but I'm
finally admitting that the Old Testament commands killing, ransacking
and destruction much more than peacemaking. Even the New
Testament has plenty of texts to support intolerance and dehumanization
of the "Other". I'm afraid that these days my own "cherry
picking" would result in a very, very small volume.
