Reading the Bible Badly. Karl Allen Kuhn
argue that our use of Scripture in the church is even more problematic than this. Not only do we as American Christians often read Scripture very differently than one another. We also tend it read it very badly.
The lenses we have crafted, consciously or not, often distort what Scripture seeks to show us about the will and ways of God. Some distortions are more severe than others. Some, as we noted above in the cases of slavery, Manifest Destiny, patriarchy, racism, Islamophobia, and homophobia, are downright tragic. Others are less extreme but still lead to the serious consequence of muting or misshaping the Bible’s witness.
When paired with uncritical, biased, or unfaithful thinking, our perspectival and selective natures can lead to uncritical, biased, and unfaithful interpretations. The perspectival and selective character of our reading glasses are unavoidable and even valuable assets, but only if we are willing to recognize when our prescription needs to change, when the lenses we use are actually distorting rather than illuminating what it is we are trying to see.
Let’s return to the example of me fishing a new lake. Suppose I fish that lake all day using the methods I found useful elsewhere but only catch a few fish. I return to the lake several more times, using the same methods, and end up with the same meager results. I conclude that problem must be with the lake—if there were fish here I (masterful fisherman that I am) would surely catch them! Or, to expand the analogy, I catch a bunch of fish but only of one species, and a species I really don’t like. So, I conclude that there must not be many fish of more desirable species in the lake and decide to move on to the next.
Well, of course, you readily see the problem in my thinking. It is biased and irrational (and a bit arrogant). It assumes that I already possess all of the skills and knowledge I would need in order to catch any kind of fish I want in any lake. Sadly, I admit to falling victim to such silly thinking more than once, only to be corrected (and humbled) by the reports of other fisherfolk back at the dock.
But I think many of us fall into these patterns of thinking quite commonly. We think we know all that there is to know, or at least all that is worth knowing, about something. We fail to see the potential limitations in our perspectives, our ingrained modes of thought, our gravitation towards and preference for the familiar. Such biased, uncritical thinking is quite human of us. Yet in moments such as these we are at risk of living up to the title “duh-ciples.”
It is just this mode of thinking, though here with more serious consequences than no fish for dinner, that Jesus is getting at when he tells the crowds “You have heard it was said in ancient times . . . but I say to you . . . !” and calls them to build their houses of faith on rock, not sand. This is what Paul is saying when he exhorts the believers in Rome “Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed in the renewing of your minds!” This is what Isaiah cried out in his lament over Israel, and what Jesus proclaimed as taking place in his day:
14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:
“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them. (Matt 13:14–15; citing Isa 6:9–10)
The faith announced by the prophets, Jesus, and Paul is a faith rightly attuned to the perspectives of God. Unfortunately, it is a faith that does not (yet) come easily to us human creatures. Even Paul, years after his mind-transforming encounter with the risen Jesus, will admit to still seeing as if in a mirror, “dimly” (1 Cor 13:12) and not yet having attained full knowledge of Christ (Phil 3:7–16). Even the Spirit-filled followers of Jesus will disagree (see Acts 6:1, 15:1–21) and get it wrong (Gal 2:11–14) at times. We all struggle with the cost of duh-cipleship.
Adjusting our Lenses
So how do we do better?
The first step, I think, in becoming thoughtful and faithful interpreters of anything, including Scripture, is to recognize we view everything through a set of reading glasses. We have to get to the point where we can boldly proclaim:
“I don’t just read Scripture, doggone it, I interpret it (fist pound)!”
The second, and perhaps more difficult step, is to acknowledge like Paul and many others that our reading glasses may need an adjustment from time to time.
It can be unsettling to recognize that we have not been seeing things clearly. We prefer when all is in order, when we are in command of our faculties, and confident in our views of reality. No one wants to hear that he or she has been mistaken. This is especially so when the things we have not been seeing clearly are very important to us, and when they play a central role in shaping our understanding of the world.
Scripture certainly plays this role for many people of faith. In many communities, Scripture holds a significant degree of authority and power. If some perspective or behavior is deemed “biblical,” then it is seen as the will of God. These are matters of high stakes. It is important to be clear on what is of God, and what is not. It is important, Isaiah cries, to see and hear properly. So, yes, it is certainly understandable that we would resist any claim that we have been seeing and hearing God’s word and will poorly.
Just like the Pharisees did.
Yet take note of this. Faithful recognitions of having misunderstood or neglected the ways of God fill the pages of Scripture. Recall the plea of the psalmist: “Make me to know your paths, O Lord!” In fact, I think we would be hard-pressed to find any major biblical figure that did not need a lens adjustment at some point during his or her life (and most needed several).
For this reason, Jesus proclaims that few things are more righteous (and desperately needed) than humility and repentance! He also makes it clear that few things are more foolish than pride and willful ignorance. Humility is about setting aside the arrogance, fear, and even hatred that is preventing us from seeing as Jesus sees. Repentance is about turning our hearts and heads in new directions, to perceive all things as persons attuned to the realm of God. According to Jesus, lens-adjusting is a necessary, even daily practice for his disciples:
9 Pray, then, in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one. (Matt 6:9–13)
Jesus makes it clear that we resist faithful lens-adjusting to our own peril: “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matt 6:22–23).
This book is about the lenses we use to read Scripture, especially those lenses that lead us to read the Bible badly. The maladjusted lenses I will discuss are common to American Christianity.
These lenses lead American Christians . . .
to read the Bible’s stories and instruction unaware of their historical and cultural settings, disregarding the testimony of their spiritual ancestors, and finding mostly a mirror image of their own values and selves in Scripture;
to insist that the Bible must be the “inerrant word of God,” historically factual in every