Here’s an incomplete list of mindsets that I don’t understand:
1.) Christians who believe the Bible is totally metaphoric. One such person said he chooses to believe this because the alternative is ugly. But ugly doesn’t equal untrue. This seems to spill out from a materialistic worldview, and the belief that since we’ve made many scientific advances since that time, we know that those things weren’t possible. One side says the Bible was never meant to be taken literally, that it’s all myth; the other says that the writers truly believed it, but were wrong. Both say a metaphoric reading has more meaning than a “literal” reading.
2.) Women who are willing to be accomplices in their own objectification. They dress to get men to lust after them. The only reason to show it, is because you want people to look. It would seem to me that this is a bad way to get attention, or at least it is bad attention to get. The looks (leers is more like it) women will receive from men when they wear revealing clothes are not the type that lead to thoughts like, “She seems smart,” or, “She’s the type of girl I could settle down with.” Maybe those aren’t the kind of responses you’re looking for, but that’s a whole other issue. If you are hoping to meet someone and settle down, perhaps you shouldn’t be out fishing for a lustful response from the men in your vicinity.
3.) Christians who believe that we have to choose between social justice and evangelism/discipleship (Beliefnet has a good thread on this…here). Why can’t both sides agree that the two are equally important? Sure, Jesus said in Matthew 25:31ff that those who care for “the least of these” will enter the Kingdom. But he said in verses 1-13 that those who horde their goods and refuse to share will enter. Not too many people preaching that message today. Then he said in 14-30 that those who make money will enter, and those who merely save it will be thrown “outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” I haven’t heard that sermon yet. What’s really strange is that these people, many of whom are of the liberal/progressive/emergent stripe that values a metaphorical reading as superior, take a surprisingly literal reading of the parable of the sheep and the goats…one unbecoming to their exegetical skill.
More to come, I’m sure…
Technorati Tags: bible, christianity, Christians, Church, commands, discipleship, evangelism, false dichotomy, jesus, justice, literal, materialism, materialistic, metaphor, metaphorical, minset, modesty, objectification, parable, rauschenbucsch, raushenbush, sandwich, social gospel, social justice, teaching, women, worldview
Blogs4God
