There are also many pre-modern and outdated concepts in the pages of this supposedly divinely inspired book. Divine inspiration does not appear to overcome God's apparent lack of knowledge. "The Word of God" assumed that the earth was the center of a three-tiered universe and that God lived above the sky. According to the Book of Genesis (Chapter 11) that is why people wanted to build a tower so tall that it could reach beyond the sky into heaven where they could commune on a one-to-one basis with God. That is why Moses met God on a mountain top, since the top of a mountain was as close to heaven as a human being could climb. That is why the story of Jesus' ascension into heaven (Acts 1) proclaimed that Jesus simply rose into the sky and traveled beyond the roof of the earth to the abode of God above the sky.
The authors of the Bible also knew nothing about weather fronts, low pressure systems or why rain and wind, hurricanes and tsunamis happen, so they treated weather patterns as acts of divine manipulation designed by God, the judge, to reward good people or to punish evil people. Knowing nothing about germs or viruses, tumors or coronary occlusions, these writers also assumed that sickness was divinely sent punishment for sin, and therefore the way to treat it was with prayers and sacrifices. It is hard to regard these narratives as "The Word of God" since the presuppositions on which these stories rest are believed by no one today. Why, we must wonder, was God so badly informed when the Bible was written, if this book is "The Word of God?"
The most difficult revelation, however, that challenges the traditional belief comes in those passages, which in the light of modern sensitivities, are brutal, wrong, insensitive and even immoral. The Bible, for example, calls for capital punishment for a willfully disobedient child who talks back to his or her parents, for worshipping a false god, for being homosexual, for committing adultery and even for having sex with one's mother-in- law! Would anyone today salute these laws as moral norms? Then there is that strange story about the concubine in the book of Judges who is first gang raped and then thrown on the porch of her master's house, barely breathing, but presumably still alive. Her master then proceeds to cut her into twelve portions, sending one to each of the twelve tribes of Israel as a call to war (Judges 19). If that is not sufficiently grotesque, there is the story of Jepthah murdering his daughter to keep a vow to God (Judges 11). No one can read these stories in church and say, "This is the Word of the Lord."
The Bible contains stories that reek with vengeance, like the account in the book of Psalms (139:9), where the psalmist fantasizes about the desire to dash the heads of Babylonian children against the rocks, or the story in which the prophet Elisha is portrayed in the Book of Kings (II Kings 2) as greeting the taunts of some little boys making fun of his bald head by calling some she bears out of the woods to tear these boys apart and to eat them. Can anyone claim that these narratives are "The Word of the Lord?"
In chapter one of Romans, Paul argues that homosexuality is God's punishment on those who do not worship God properly. When talking about women, Paul and/or his surrogates forbid allowing any woman from having authority over a man. This means, if taken literally, that no woman could ever walk the path that leads to economic, political or ecclesiastical power. I have four daughters. One is the managing director of a major southern financial institution, one is a lawyer working in the office of the Virginia attorney general, one has a PhD in Physics and is the Chief Information Officer of a west coast high-tech startup company, and one is a veteran of a nine year tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps, with 21 months of active duty in the second Iraqi war to her credit. Will these women or countless others like them ever be able or willing to call the Bible the inerrant "Word of God" so long as these grossly discriminating verses are in that book?
Both the Old and the New Testaments endorse slavery as a morally acceptable institution. The Torah prohibits slavery, but only among fellow Jews. "You are to take your slaves from neighboring countries," is its exhortation. I suppose that if citizens of the United States were to call these verses "The Word of God," it would put Canadians and Mexicans at risk.
In Paul's epistles to Philemon and Colossians (if he actually wrote Colossians), this apostle seems to think that slavery is quite legitimate, but that Christians have a duty to make slavery "kinder and gentler." There is no doubt that a kinder and gentler slavery is better than a cruel and hostile slavery, but does anyone today really argue that slavery in any form is not demeaning, life destroying and evil? Yet of a book that contains these directives, there are many who still say, "This is the Word of the Lord!"
Once people could read the Bible for themselves, the claims that the church has made for these scriptures over the centuries became tempered by reality. Many things in the Bible are clearly not "the Word of God." They are immoral, unjust, uninspired and evil.
No religious institution or individual believer can today deny these facts. No one should want to and the convoluted reasoning employed by trapped and exposed fundamentalists is no longer a sufficient cover for profound ignorance.
A literally understood Bible is fated to be abandoned by all educated, thinking people. Does that mean there is no value that can still be attached to this ancient text? No, but it does mean that literalism must be exposed and expelled. What then? We continue next week.
John Shelby Spong
Is the above book the one opened to serious teaching in public schools? If/since it is, then Spong should be commissioned to develop the curriculm and courses of study. Truth will prevail--eventually. Thoughts?? Roger
Edited to add the 'bold' and 'UL'... No response to this point?? Am i over reacting, over sensitive? And, so-called Christians wonder why there is a movement to take Judeo-Christianism out of schools et al. To bow ones' head while some one offers a prayer, in repect of such ancient nonsense, is an afront to intelligence, social justice and human dignity. "God" doesn't countenance such stupidity and the inherant violence and injustice that eminates from such tribal ignorance and indifference to "neighbors"... Enough already! Roger, hot-under-the-collar.