Four abuses of Scripture.

October 7, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

A comment submitted this week about one of my earlier posts has set me thinking again about my personal reflections on the use and misuse of the Bible.  Having preached a strong sermon recently (September 30) about the authority of the Svcriptures for Christians, I decided that I needed to “dust off” some earlier writings about scriptural abuse and about how the Bible is used by Christians in the debates of our times —espcially in regard to human sexuality and homosexuality.

 This post is in two parts:

A Quick Study on Bible Abuse.  Nothing, it seems, is more central to the whole debate about homosexuality in the world today than the Holy Bible itself. It is quoted, studied, and even shaken at those who disagree with one’s point of view. For some, it is a refuge, a talisman, a shibboleth, a weapon.

In order to bring clarity to the discussion of difficult issues, it is imperative not to misuse the Bible. This is not just rhetoric. Different Christians (and some non-Christians) tend to misuse the Bible in some striking and predictable ways. Here are four of them, and some thoughts on why it’s wrong and who gets hurt.

Refuge - a stronghold or shelter, a place of hiding, a safe place.

The story in Mark’s Gospel (11:15-18) was that the sellers and money lenders in the Temple were using the house of prayer as a “den of thieves”—the retreat to which they disappeared after committing their crime.  Do Christians unknowingly use the Bible as just such a refuge, hiding behind its hard-bound, gold-lettered covers?

Christians who take refuge in the Bible may not think they are leading a double life.  Out in the world, living the lives of sinners, thieves and worse, they live according to the laws of the jungle—every day life, the political and corporate worlds. But in order to be respected, they take refuge in the “laws” of heaven.  “I believe in it,” they will say, but not apply any of its weightier counsel to the ethical issues we all face in daily life.  Just, so, Jesus warned against hypocrites.  His juiciest words are in Matthew 6 (the Sermon on the Mount) and in chapter 23.  For example, Mt. 23:27-28: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs. . . So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Talisman - a superstitious object, a magical object thought to bring good luck or keep away evil, a charm.

Judges and Presidents lay their right hand upon and solemnly swear by the Bible, hoping its honor and dignity will solemnize their promises.  Families write their family trees into the Bible’s center pages, and keep it handy as a coffee table trophy in case the minister comes to call.  (When opened, the Good Book fairly cracks with newness, because no one actually reads it!)

People who objectify the Bible superstitiously as a holy book are really afraid of it, are completely lost in it, and are more comfortable with mere association.  If prodded to open it, a quick and simple reference to it is the safest: One or two quick quotes from it are all that are needed.  If questioned, these superstitious Christians can say, “but I looked it up.”

Jesus counters this use of religion at John 5:39-40: “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf.  Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” In John’s Gospel, the whole point and purpose of the scriptures is to bring people to Christ who grants life, John 20:31:  “These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Shibboleth - a test, intended to search out and trip up anybody who doesn’t pass the test.

In Judges 12:5-6 the word “shibboleth” itself was the test (meaning “ear of corn” at Genesis 41:5-7, Ruth 2:2) or “flood” or “torrent” (Psalm 69:3, 16; Isaiah 27:12). “Shibboleth” was unpronounceable for some people who looked like local people but who were really outsiders.  So an easy way to search out a spy from other parts was to demand that they pronounce the word “shibboleth.”

Says Robert G. Boling in his Anchor Bible commentary on Judges , “I am told that in World War II the Dutch underground was able to screen out German spies by making them pronounce the Dutch city name Scheveningen, which only the Dutch can do properly.”

It is interesting that it was a war between the tribes of Israel that occasioned this wicked test.  Those who said “sibboleth” instead of “shibboleth” were killed immediately.

The Bible is sometimes used as such a test, by one tribe of Christians against another, as a way of sorting out “Bible believers” from “Bible doubters.”  For example, if a suspected person fails to say all the things about the Bible in the precise way, it would identify her or him as not a “true Christian” but a “doubter.” (Ironically, the test is often administered by someone who has mastered and memorized vast passages of the King James Version, and expects to hear the exact same wording back from others.)

The idea of a test of orthodoxy is not new in our generation, of course, but it is equally as vicious in its hatred of those who do not pass the test.  We should remember the true test given to us by our Lord in the form of a commandment—that we love one another.

Just as people have been separated and taken away at gunpoint, so the Bible is used to intimidate, separate or push away those who fear it by those who grip it tightly.

Weapon - a tool with which to attack, harm or kill someone.

Yes, the Bible is sometimes used as a weapon—as if it were cold, hard steel—by cold, hard Christians.  It is small enough to conceal in one’s pocket; it can be shaken, pointed, gripped, and fingered like one fingers a trigger on a gun, in the heat of a lecture, debate or sermon.  The Bible used as a weapon means a Bible which is ready to condemn or damn those who totally disregard it or simply disagree with the person holding it.  For such people, the Bible is a weapon, penal code and penitentiary rolled into one.

“Those who live buy the sword shall die by the sword”  (Matthew 26:52).  Does that mean, literally, just swords—one of the few weapons available in Bible times—or weapons in general?  The point is, if we live by our weapons, they shall overcome us and destroy us.  So, if one uses the Bible like a weapon, by assaulting other human beings with what seem to be its “eternal laws”, for example, destruction awaits the one who does this.  For as St. Paul says, the law only kills, it cannot make alive.

We do not use the Bible like a weapon because everyone gets hurt, and the Gospel is not proclaimed.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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