By the Way . . . from Mike Williams

Welcome to my first Blog. Whatever brought you here — whether you’re desconstructing Christianity; whether you’re a recovering Christian; whether you’re just seeking, and know there has to be more to what we’ve been taught about God, Jesus and the Bible; or whether you’re just curious and want to see what all the controversy is about — whatever the reason you’re here, I’m glad you’re here. Throughout these weekly entries, we will be examining and exploring, considering and reconsidering, thinking and rethinking, questioning and, yes, even arguing the scriptures.

I’ve been told repeatedly on various social media platforms that we should not argue regarding the scriptures. First, I do not know who “we” is. I doubt very much that any of the people telling me that would consider themselves grouped together with me in any way. Apparently, we become a community just long enough for them to tell me what I’m not allowed to discuss. Secondly, the idea that reverence for scripture requires silence about its meaning is difficult to reconcile with the long history of people studying it, debating it and arriving at different conclusions. If we were not supposed to argue the scriptures, the scriptures themselves would not exist. The Hebrews who wrote the scriptures love to argue the scriptures. The Hebrews who have read and studied the scriptures for millennia of generations love to argue the scriptures. It’s what they do and it’s why the scriptures exist.

In the rabbinic tradition, there would be a study gathering of sorts, often around a meal, where someone would pull out an ancient scroll, untie it (this is was known as loosing) and they would begin to discuss the text, unlocking its mysteries, literlly arguing over its various potentioal meanings. When the discussion was concluded, the scroll would be rolled up again, retied (this was known as “binding”) and the scroll would be returned from whence it came, long before “binding and loosing” came to be known in Pentecostal circles of ways of dealing with demons.

The vast majority of people who tell me we should not argue scripture seem quite comfortable arguing until someone challenges their interpretation. They have accepted an explanation from a pastor, a denomination, a family member or someone claiming a revelation, and they expect everyone else to accept it too. When you question that explanation, suddenly you are questioning God Himself. Their understanding becomes inseparable from divine authority, and any disagreement becomes evidence that something must be wrong with you. They are actually saying that their interpretation of scripture or their “revelation” they have come to accept and believe is the correct one and the one anyone arguing with them should just accept as well. That simply is not the way scripture works. Anyone who actually believes that likely does not actually read it and has certainly never studied. But they certainly believe it. Or rather, they believe their own, ignorant, uneducated opinion about what they think a particular verse says and means, when so much of what they believe isn’t actually based on what the scripture says at all.

There is a considerable difference between knowing what a verse says and knowing what someone told you it means. You can memorize a passage, quote it loudly and build an argument around it without ever examining the surrounding paragraphs. You can recognize the words while knowing very little about the speaker, the audience or the circumstances. Before we use a verse to define God, condemn another person or make a demand upon someone’s life, we ought to examine what we are reading.

Many of us were taught conclusions before we were taught how to read. We learned which answers were acceptable, which questions were dangerous and which people we should avoid. By the time we encountered a difficult passage, someone had already supplied the explanation we were expected to defend. That training can produce tremendous confidence. It can also leave us unable to explain our beliefs beyond saying that this is what we have always been taught.

Repetition has a way of making an idea feel established even when we have never investigated it. Hear something from enough pulpits, songs and conversations, and eventually you may assume it came directly from the Bible. Then someone asks you to find it, and you discover that locating the teaching is considerably harder than repeating it. That moment can become an opportunity to learn, provided we are willing to examine the claim instead of attacking the person who questioned it.

I understand why that examination can feel threatening. A belief may be connected to your parents, your church, your friendships and your understanding of yourself. Questioning it can raise concerns about everything attached to it. You may wonder whether you are betraying people you love or losing something that helped you survive. Those concerns deserve patience and honest conversation. They deserve more than a warning that thinking too carefully will lead you away from God.

Some of you arrive here carrying the memory of being shamed for asking questions. Perhaps you were threatened for expressing doubt or dismissed because your experience did not fit someone else’s theology. Perhaps you spent years trying to believe an explanation that never made sense to you. I hope these conversations give you room to examine those experiences honestly, without having to minimize their effects or pretend that you have already resolved them.

I have responsibilities here too. If I expect you to examine your assumptions, I have to examine mine. If an explanation I have repeated does not hold up, I need to correct it. Having a platform gives me somewhere to present an argument, but you should still ask how I reached my conclusion and whether the passage supports it.

You are welcome to disagree with me. Bring the passage, consider its context and explain your understanding. Calling someone deceived or heretical contributes very little unless you can address the actual argument. We can challenge each other directly while remembering that another person’s sincerity cannot be measured by their agreement with us.

So welcome, wherever you find yourself today. You may identify as Christian, be reconsidering that identity or have left it behind with questions still unanswered. Bring your curiosity, your concerns and your willingness to read carefully. We will take the time these conversations require, leave room for correction and explore what becomes possible when questions are allowed to lead us further.

So much of what people believe is based on what they have heard someone say about scripture. A preacher repeats something, another preacher repeats it and eventually an entire congregation assumes the Bible says it. So much more of what we think we know we got from somebody who got it from somebody who got it from somebody who couldn’t read. Think about that for a moment. Things we learn in church, though not in the Bible, become familiar enough that nobody thinks to look for it. Then someone asks where it appears, and the question is treated as an offense. Surely, if we are going to insist that a teaching is biblical, asking to see it in the Bible ought to be a reasonable request. But if you do find it in the Bible, what is the context surrounding it?

That is where these conversations will often begin. We will look at what the text actually says and consider how we arrived at the conclusions we have attached to it. Who is speaking? Who is being addressed? What circumstances surround the statement? Those questions matter because words spoken to particular people in a particular situation cannot automatically be made into universal instructions without examining the reasoning behind that application. Quoting a verse begins the work of interpretation; it does not finish it.

We also need to consider what happens when an interpretation leaves the pulpit and enters someone’s life. A teaching about God can influence how people understand their worth, raise their children, approach relationships and respond to suffering. People make consequential decisions because someone told them that God required it. When those decisions produce confusion, fear or harm, they deserve permission to examine the teaching that guided them. Telling them to stop questioning does nothing to address what they have experienced.

For some of you, questioning began because an explanation no longer held together. For others, it began because the explanation demanded that you ignore something you knew about compassion, justice or human dignity. Perhaps you tried to discuss the problem and discovered that your church had room for your attendance, your service and your money, but very little room for your questions. Experiences like that can leave people struggling to determine which beliefs they still hold and which ones they accepted because disagreement carried too high a price.

I intend for this blog to make room for that examination, and that includes examining what I say. I cannot reasonably challenge other people’s interpretations while demanding that my own receive unquestioning acceptance. If I make a claim, you should be able to ask what supports it. If I repeat an explanation that does not withstand scrutiny, I need to reconsider it. The willingness to correct ourselves ought to accompany the willingness to correct anybody else.

We will disagree, and some discussions may become uncomfortable. I expect that because these subjects touch convictions we have carried for years. Still, discomfort does not relieve us of the responsibility to listen carefully, explain our reasoning and address the question being asked. Accusations about someone’s faith cannot substitute for an explanation of the passage. If our understanding is sound, we should be willing to discuss how we reached it.

We have been taught faith as certainty, but in reality, certainty is actually the enemy of faith, and faith truly begins where certainty reaches its limits. It is really in the deliberate asking of our questions and wrestling with the scriptures that our faith becomes more grounded, more honest, more sure. The word Israel actually means “to wrestle with God.” So while you think you have a corner on the market when it comes to God because of your certainty, God’s so-called chosen people are those who wrestle with God, who ask questions and may never be certain, as they not only ask questions, but when given answers to those questions, then question the answers. Men of true faith are never certain, and always asking questions.

That brings us back to why you are here and why I am writing. There are questions worth asking, passages worth revisiting and inherited explanations worth examining together. My hope is that each weekly conversation helps us read more carefully, think more honestly and consider how our beliefs affect the people around us. Bring your questions and your disagreements, and I will bring mine. We have already spent enough time being told what we must believe; let’s give serious attention to why we believe it.

Oh, and by the way … as Bishop Carlton Pearson often said, “It takes talent to answer questions, but it takes genius to ask them.”