The Bible is a Book

"The Bible is a book.  A good book.  But it's not the only book."

The above is a quote from the brilliant play, Inherit the Wind, about the Scopes Monkey trial of the 1920s, where a school teacher is prosecuted for daring to teach evolution in the public schools.  The play was written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee.

It was the first community theater production I performed in, way back in the late 70s in the small town of Cartersville, Georgia.

Times have changed.  Small towns are not likely to perform this play.  One reason is that it requires some two dozen men in speaking roles.  Not many community theaters have that many men try out anymore.  But the most significant reason is that it is now just too controversial.  Anyone who thinks we have only gotten better and more open over time should keep that in mind.

It is true that evolution is taught in schools, or at least many make the attempt.  But it is placed with so many caveats and excuses that its impact is muted and clouded.  Many teachers bring religion and creation myths into it, whether it's explicitly allowed or not.

The idea that the bible is infallible and inerrant has increased its hold on large swaths of America.  Every word must be literally true and consistent, every phrase and verse comes from God and has been merely recorded by man.

This ignores the fact that the Bible is filled with inconsistencies and varied views of the same events.  The Jewish history told in Judges does not match up to that shown in the Torah.  As far as creation goes, there are several versions written about, including two within the first few chapters in Genesis. The Gospels describe the events of Jesus's ministry with such differences that they can only be described as alternate history.

Even by those that claim that the Bible is to be literal and true in every word, they use the Bible selectively for the things they want to justify.  You can select and convolute verses to justify slavery, being anti-abortion, being anti-gay, beating your kids, subjugating woman, defining marriage in ways that vary from polygamy to the nuclear family, hating the poor.

But you can only do it if you ignore the message as a whole.

It is a story about being released from captivity, about freeing yourself from exploitation and hatred. It is about man's growing relationship with God, emerging from the jealous God who seemed to acknowledge that there were other gods - he was just to be worshiped above all the others, to the loving God as expressed by Jesus.  It is about loving God and loving your neighbor and all your fellow man.  It is about making this world a better place for all.

The bible IS a good book.  A very good book.  But you have to look at it as great literature, and concentrate on the major themes it present.  Only then does it gain power.

As long as you stand in the middle of the forest and only select those trees that reinforce your prejudices and culture, you will always be lost.

If you step back and look at the forest as a whole, and draw out its broader purpose and meaning, only then will you be found.