bible

I think that insofar as we are trying to re-think what it means to be a follower of Jesus or a Christian, then we would all benefit by not worrying about the problem of “relativism” and its ugly cousin “absolutism.” We live in real communities where there are limits, but those limits are not set in stone. We have to read what the Bible says and integrate it into our lives as best we can. Relativism and absolutism add layers of modern, metaphysical and philosophical baggage, and so they are superfluous to this process.

My argument is that many evangelicals creatively weave the contemporary word “homosexuality” and its attendant meanings back into the Biblical text and context through the process of story telling. Specifically, they take a topic that emerged enforce during the 1980s and project it back into history as if “homosexuality” had always been a hot button issue for Christians and evangelicals. The effect of this creative storytelling is to tie the Holy Bible to the present political issue of “homosexuality” in a way that justifies the speaker’s condemnation on Biblical grounds. The result is that even though “homosexuality” is not literally or empirically in the Bible, many conservative evangelicals imagine it there anyway.

When i read a novel or a short story, i stop reading quickly if the story doesnt ring true. but stories that remind me of my experiences, stories that speak honestly about the duality of life, stories that reveal the uncertain, complex nature of life, become classics because they are “true.”