As I begin preparation for ords, I picked up Shirley Guthrie's "Christian Doctrine." In light of my experiences at GA different things have jumped off the page.
In his discussion about studying the Bible he states "There is always the danger that we will find in the Bible only what we take with us to it - that we will use it to confirm what we already think and will hear only what we want to hear.... What is to keep us from simply using the Bible to give authority to our own religious, social, political and economic prejudices What is to prevent us from using the study of this ancient book as a pious excuse for refusing to face the radical claims of the living God on every area of our lives, hear and now?" - p 11
"The self-revelation of God is in fact so new and unexpected that it is often offensive to those who think they already know who God is and what God must say and do if God is really God." - 56
These 2 pieces made me think back to GA and wonder what lens are we viewing Scripture through? Are we bringing our biases and fears hoping to find only what we want or are we willing to let go and let God be God? Christianity has always had a scandalous edge to it, perhaps moving toward the ordination of GLBT persons in the next scandalous move. After all blacks and women have been allowed to preach.
The struggle of theology continues....
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I think one of the things that makes the ordination issue so contentious, aside from the relative lack of guidance on ordination within scripture, is that either side can be guilty of filtering scripture to support their own pre-existing conclusions.
For example, those who are against homosexual ordination will readily point to those passages which seem to condemn homosexuality, while discounting or reinterpreting scripture which points to Jesus' inclusiveness of sinners.
Those who favor homosexual ordination, will readily appeal to the inclusiveness passages, while discounting reinterpeting those verses which condemn the practice of homosexuality.
So, how does one determine who is interpreting scripture based upon their own preconceived notions?
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