CONTENTS

THE SIN OF BIBLEDOLATRY



        While I attended Junior College, I had a friend who could be best described as a religious agnostic. He was a very religious man, but felt that his mind had been so messed up by his Christian upbringing that there was no way he could know for sure what or who God was. So, whenever he went to a party, celebrated a holiday, or just felt like getting drunk, he would make sure that he poured a little oblation to the four corners of the earth, hoping that this would satisfy what ever God there was. Beyond that, he did his best to live an ethical life and to have real concern for those who surrounded him.
        Jack's biggest problem with Christianity was what he called "the sin of bibledolatry." He coined the term himself. For Jack, bibledolatry was the sin of elevating the Bible into the status of God.
        When I knew him, Jack was studying to be a science and math teacher in high school. His best example of bibledolatry could probably be summed up with the name of one institution, The Creation Research Foundation. However, Jack could find more examples. Bibledolatry caused the missionaries to put clothes on the Polynesians, to burn witches in Europe, and so on. The list of atrocities was too great to mention here.
        Had Jack known what I now know, I think that he would have agreed with my second definition of bibledolatry. Not only is bibledolatry the sin of elevating the Bible into the status of God, but quite often bibledolatry also makes a false bible to be elevated into the status of God. Right off hand, you are probably thinking of the Mormons with their Book of Mormon which seems to have taken the place of the Bible. But that is not what I am talking about.
        In the fifties and sixties, conservative churches used the story of Noah's ark to explain the origin of the colored races and justify segregation. The convoluted doctrine never truly represented the Bible. Yet, this doctrine was presented as the "Word of God," and it made integration and equal rights that much more difficult to achieve. The same could be said about the women's rights movement of the seventies and eighties. However, that one is much more difficult to prove because there are indeed misogynistic passages in the Bible. Now, we find bibledolatry involved in the fight to prevent those with different sexual orientations from achieving equal status in our society. We find bibledolatry in Jack's sense, with those who will quote the two passages in Leviticus, which do condemn the behavior of male homosexual congress. We also find bibledolatry in my sense with those who use all the other passages discussed in this booklet.
        Is bibledolatry the Christian form of idolatry? That was Jack's contention. It is also mine.
        American Orthodoxy states that Jesus is the living "word" or expression of God, based on the first chapter of John's gospel. It also states that the Bible is the written word of God. These two statements create the confusion that allows Jesus and the Bible to become the same in the minds of many. In fact, I have heard some purposely make that correlation. It is easy to see why the Bible is often substituted for Jesus.
        The same writer quoted above, John the evangelist, also wrote:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:16 &17 KJV)

        God's love for us is not like the love of a toddler. A toddler loves something as an object. The toddler hasn't sufficiently learned relationship to have any other relationship with the object of his love than that of lover and object of love. But, we are not objects to God. Neither should God be reduced to an object for us. When the book replaces God, not only is God reduced to an object, a thing, but He is also replaced by an object or a thing. As Christians, our goal should not be to know God as a thing, something that we can possess, but as a person, someone we have a relationship with.
        While a book might be helpful in achieving this goal, from our perspective, it is not sufficient. The only way to have a meaningful relationship with God is to commune with God, to interact on a personal basis. Even if God had written the book, as the fundamentalists like to claim, knowing the book doesn't mean that you know God any more than knowing this little booklet means that you know me! And... misunderstanding the book removes you even further from the possibility of knowing God.
        Bibledolatry is idolatry, plane and simple, because it is rejection of God, just as Paul described rejection of God in the beginning of the infamous latter half of Romans chapter one:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. (Romans 1:21-23, KJV)

        You may object, "The Bible is not an image, like an image of man or birds or fourfooted beasts or creeping things." While that is literally true, it can become, and quite often has become a substitute for God. The person who commits bibledolatry rejects the true God for the book. He is in effect saying, "Leave me alone, God. I have your book and that is all I need." And, the bibledolotrist becomes enslaved to that book, totally ignoring the words of Paul who said God has "... made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (2 Corinthians 3:6, KJV)
        I am convinced that much of the church, not just fundamentalist, but middle-of-the road and liberal as well, is guilty of bibledolatry. The sin of bibledolatry has made us, like Paul describes, cold, heartless, and unwilling to accept those who differ from us. The sin of bibledolatry underlies our prejudice against, our unwillingness to forgive, and our inability to accept homosexuals and all others of different sexual orientations or identities.
        I am also convinced that if we give up our reliance on the Bible and instead attempt to meet God, face to face, we can overcome this sin and enslavement. No, I am not suggesting that we throw out the Bible. Certainly, you can see that I have not rejected the Bible altogether. (However, I admit that may be necessary for a short time, in extreme cases.) Instead, I am suggesting that we invite God, as revealed in the overture of love and compassion found in Christ on the cross, to replace the Bible as the center of our faith. It is only in this manner that the Bible can take its rightful place as a tool, designed to help us in our faith journey.
        Will this mean that we will learn to accept the homosexual, the lesbian, the bisexual and the transgendered into the family of faith on an equal basis with all other believers? Does that idea bother you?
        Which is more important to you, right now? Is theological soundness, well within the confines of Orthodoxy, so important that you are afraid to risk a deeper relationship with Christ than the Bible can provide? If so, you have chosen the way of the Pharisees. However, if you are willing to become a quote-faggot lover-unquote, if this is indeed what Jesus wants of you, salvation may truly be at your door step this moment. Just let Jesus have his way with you.

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