On Following and Studying the Bible

A MadeByMark.com reader asks, “Please explain how you can claim to follow the Bible and be both gay and Christian.”

I’m happy to try. Please remember, though: in matters of faith, an explanation always pales in comparison with experience. Some things can be learned by listening. Other things can be learned by watching or reading. But some things, especially spiritual things, can only be learned by experience.

Trying to understand my faith without experiencing what I have experienced is a bit like trying to learn to play baseball by reading a rule book. At some point, you are going to have to put my words aside and start swinging the bat yourself.

That said: let’s get started.

Following the Bible

Before we can go any further, we must talk some about the phrase, “follow the Bible.” In my experience, many Christians, religious people, and fundamentalists use this phrase without thinking about it. “We follow the Bible,” they say. “If you’re a Christian, you should follow the Bible. How can you be a Christian without following the Bible?”

Forgive me, but I was under the impression that a Christian follows Christ. If someone follows the Bible, he’s not a Christian — he’s a Biblian. If a woman follows the Bible, her faith is not in God; it’s in a book. (Or, really, a collection of little books, since that’s what the word Bible means.) Such a person has made the Bible into an idol.

Even worse — and this is the really scary part — that person’s faith is not so much in a book, as it is in his or her own ability to read, understand, and interpret that book with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

Think about it, and you will have to agree. If you’re out to follow the Bible, but you lack the proper education and experience to read and interpret it as correctly as possible, that Bible you’re following is going to lead you to some pretty bizarre places.

Interpreting the Bible

This is not the Bible’s fault. The Bible is what it is. The Bible says what it says. The trouble is not with the Bible, but with us, with human beings. By definition, our perspective is imperfect.

We have no choice but to read Scripture through a lens constructed from our education, our experiences, our hopes, and our fears. As a result, our interpretation of the Bible will always be an imperfect one.

Try saying that out loud, by the way. Right now, as you read this, just try saying, “My interpretation of the Bible will always be imperfect.”

Did you say it? More importantly — did you believe it? If so, then congratulations: you’ve just taken your first step toward honest Bible study.

How Not to Study the Bible

All too many people are incapable of that. Take the creepy stalker who, some time ago, pulled on a mask, called himself “A Friend,” and threw a jumble of disconnected Scriptures into a MadeByMark.com comment form. “I am not giving you my opinion now,” he said. “This is strictly BIBLE.”

A person who makes such a statement believes he or she has got The Truth by the tail. This person has no question in his mind, no room for exploration, no openness to new evidence. As a result, his approach to Bible study is disastrously flawed.

First, it is wrong-headed. Instead of going to the Bible with fresh eyes and an open mind to see what the Bible really says on a subject, this approach draws its conclusions … and then goes to the Bible to find Scriptures (or, really, Scraptures — little bits of Scripture, ripped out of context) that can be used to prop those conclusions up.

Second, it is dishonest. This approach requires an editor — someone who goes looking for Scraptures he thinks can be applied to the situation, who lifts those Scraptures out of the Bible, and who organizes them in a way that supports his conclusions. The product is a deliberately gathered, deliberately organized set of quotations from Scripture. And then, amazingly, the very person who created that product has the gall to say, “But this doesn’t represent my opinion … it’s just Bible!”

Third, it is vain. Having deceived himself into overlooking the role he played in cherry-picking Scraptures to support his foregone conclusions, the person who uses this Bible study method likes to say, “Because all I’m doing is quoting God’s word, this isn’t my opinion — it’s what God has to say on the subject.”

In the process, he gives himself quite a promotion. Instead of being just another Christian, now he is God’s mouthpiece, God’s spokesperson, God’s agent. If you disagree with him, you aren’t disagreeing with an imperfect human’s conclusions about Scripture … you’re disagreeing with God. (And how dare you!)

A Starting Place

So: before we go any further … where are we?

First off: I’m a Christian. I follow Christ.

Second: My effort to follow Christ is informed by what I freely admit is an imperfect grasp of what the Bible says.

Third: Given that my human conclusions about the Bible and its teachings are, by definition, imperfect, I reserve the right to be wrong. What I believe today may not be what I believe tomorrow. In other words: don’t make me your guru.

Instead, I urge you to cultivate a clear, skeptical mind. I urge you to weigh evidence with your mind and with your heart, making a special effort to see what really is — and not just what you want to see.

Questions for Brave Folk

If you’ve read this far, I hope you’ll be willing to post your answers to the following questions in a comment form:

1) In what way might someone follow the Bible … without following Christ?

2) How perfect is your understanding of the Bible?

3) Can you cite an example of a conclusion you drew or a belief you held, based on Scripture, which you later changed or revised as a result of further study?