The Bible Shouldn't Be Weaponized

I apologize that I haven’t written a blog post for a couple of weeks. The primary reason is we lost a family member to COVID-19. The secondary reason is technical problems forced me to get a new computer. Thank you once again for your patience. In recent blog posts, I wrote that I would share some of my religious deconstruction and reconstruction stories. I want to begin with one that gives some insight into my current view of the Bible. The denomination and sister denominations from my past taught it was acceptable to spread propaganda to discredit anyone they saw as a threat. Unfortunately, they too often felt victimized when there was no threat. Sadly, their propaganda often victimized others, yet in their minds, they were still the victim. Even when they harmed each other, the one who was harmed was expected to forgive without consequences or justice being meted out to the perpetrator – even in cases of physical or sexual abuse. In those cases, gossip was used to discredit the person who had been harmed if they didn’t take responsibility for what had happened to them. That is what helped me understand that spreading propaganda and gossip are often one in the same. When used to discredit others, it’s often breaking the commandment of bearing false witness. When it’s given the Godly seal of approval, it’s often breaking the commandment of using God’s name in vain. That leads me to a good example. Our denominations were protesting loudly that the Ten Commandments must be displayed on all government buildings around the same time I came to that understanding. I pointed out that it was better for us to live the Ten Commandments for the world to see, because ugly protests weren’t making us look Godly to the world. Guess what happened – I became the next person to be discredited by gossip. It hurt then. Now, I’m grateful for what it revealed about the company I was keeping. The following situation led me to understand that the Bible is only for people who decide to become Christians. Our denominations were screaming about the War on Christmas and were being particularly vocal about what Starbucks was putting on their coffee cups. When I asked them not to act so hatefully and reminded them that the Bible tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, I was quickly and repeatedly informed that scripture only requires us to love our Christian brothers and sisters. When I reminded them that 1 Corinthians 5:12 tells us not to judge the world or we’d have to leave the world but only judge sin in the church, I was quickly and repeatedly informed that particular scripture, that clearly says it's for inside the church, was for the world outside the church. That situation informed me that, in their minds, we can withhold love from the outside world but we can’t withhold judgment. In the years since, I’ve been surprised by how many people told me they no longer attend church due to seeing that clearly. That kind of thinking seems to be the reason church attendance drops every year, but too many in the denominations I came from are still blaming it on a world they see as sinful. I must interject that not all denominations are like the ones I’m describing, and I thank the denominations and individual Christians who use wisdom and discernment as they live the Christian lifestyle – who use their lifestyle as a testament of their faith instead of arguments and propaganda. Unfortunately, those wise denominations and people are usually not the vocal ones. If people in the most vocal denominations are spreading propaganda about what Starbucks puts on their coffee cups due to a misguided belief that there’s a war on Christmas, while justifying obvious sins and crimes being committed by their favorite politicians, and doing both in the name of God -- why would people want to attend church? I wouldn’t attend church any more if I hadn’t found one like I described in the last paragraph. In addition to blaming the world for lack of church attendance, I’ve lately heard them blaming the sins of the world for our current pandemic. I will discuss why I disagree with that in a future blog post. In this post, I’m going to assume they’re right and offer an alternate way of seeing God’s possible involvement. As one of many possible examples, a popular piece of propaganda they spread is that most of our country doesn’t work. They support that belief with the 2 Thessalonians scripture that says if a man won’t work he won’t eat. There are several problems with that interpretation. First, that scripture says won’t work; however, they’re voting together to try to take away social safety nets for the sick, handicapped, elderly, and working poor who need food stamps to make ends meet. Second, reading 2 Thessalonians in its entirety explains that it’s talking about people who are gossiping instead of working. Therefore, that one scripture doesn’t contradict the many places the Bible tells Christians to help the poor and needy. It does, however, show that those who are spreading propaganda, which is a form of gossip, are violating the scripture they are using to judge the poor and needy. This leads me to my third point. There are dozens of other scriptures in the Bible that talk about helping the poor and needy, and the Old Testament has a third year poor tax. It isn’t hard for me to imagine that it’s due to sins in the church if God’s playing a hand in our current pandemic. Having lockdowns shows us what the world really looks like if only a few people, the essential workers, are on the job. If most people didn’t work, our country would look like it looks during the lockdowns all the time; therefore, most of our country does work. Statistics prove that, but statistics are too often not trusted by the denominations from my past; therefore, could it be that God is using the pandemic to show them what their propaganda would look like if it were true? Sadly, that is one of many examples. Every time I hear them blaming the world for the pandemic, I can think of a dozen lessons this pandemic is revealing about how incorrect their propaganda is. Because of these experiences, I’m firmly convinced that the Bible is for believers/those who choose to become Christians. I believe we should follow 1 Corinthians 5:12 and only judge sin in the church. As we do that, we should remember that the definition of sin is missing the mark; therefore, the focus when judging sin in the church should be to correct the mistake and get back on track (hit the mark) or set the right boundaries with people who harm others by not participating in self-correction or church-correction (Matthew 18:15-18). I believe we should listen to what Jesus said and shake the dust off our feet if someone rejects our message. I also believe the world should set strong boundaries to protect itself from us if we’re acting in ways that harm those outside the church. I don’t believe we have a right to shove our message down the throats of people who have made us aware they aren’t interested, and we definitely don’t have the right to try to pass laws to control them. I do NOT believe that Christian love is only for believers. How will we convince people that Christianity is good news if we’re being hateful to everyone who is different than us? I do believe we have to understand what love really means in order to live it. Love doesn’t mean having no boundaries and letting people harm us without consequences or justice. I have too often seen fundamentalist Christians use terms such as unconditional love and forgiveness to force people to justify bad behavior. As I’ve said many times before, a person can love and forgive from a safe distance with harmful people. It can be as simple as praying for them from a safe distance without trying to discredit them or retaliate. It can also look like NOT spreading propaganda against anyone who isn’t like us or disagrees with us. When other governments start adding to our propaganda, like has recently been happening in the United States, because they see how effective that is at dividing us, that should be a huge wake-up call.