Originally I planned to follow our discussion about Adam and Eve's children's spouses with one on the creation accounts in the Bible (there are several) and whether evolution truly conflicts with those stories (based on Question #17 in Banned Questions...). It would make a good follow-up to some of the discussion we've had on Adam and Eve this week.
With recent violent outbreaks resulting from the amateur movie that denigrates Mohammed and has upset Muslims across the world, I've also thought about exploring the questions on whether the Bible justifies violence (Question #20) and on how to reconcile an "eye for an eye" with "love your enemies" (Question #15).
I have notes on both topics so I could go with either one. Rather than rely on whatever mood I'm in when I wake up to write the post Saturday morning, I'd like to give you a chance to have a say.
Do you have a preference on which topic you'd like to see next? Do the creation stories and evolution conflict or how do we reconcile Old Testament teachings on violence and vengeance with Jesus' teachings on loving our enemies and turning the other cheek?
On a more general scale, what questions would you like to see us discuss here? Dave Retherford provided some good suggestions in the first post on this blog. You can see them in the comment section by clicking here.
Let me know in the comments below. Thanks!
I like you idea of putting a light on the current situation and talk about the movie. Topics could be separation of church and state, free speech, does one religion have more rights to censure than other religions, who actually made the movie and why?
ReplyDeleteNelson, I like the idea of going with the current events tie-in this week.
ReplyDeleteRandy
I'm ok with occasional diversion from the intent of this discussion if that's what participants want. However, my primary interest is in the questions related to the Bible, since we don't often have a chance for that kind of discussion. For those able to attend on Sunday AM, The American Religious Townhall offers opportunity to discuss current events.
DeleteJudy - Thanks for your comment (and support!). The recent events in the Middle East coincided with a couple of questions that were near the top of my list: Does the Bible justify violence? and How do we resolve "an eye for an eye" from the OT with Jesus' teachings about turning the other cheek and loving our enemies?
DeleteYou are right that we don't often get to discuss questions we have about the Bible itself and I want to emphasize that. This was just a matter of re-arranging the order to take advantage of an example of this struggle in action.
I don't have the list of Questions here with me at work, but thought the news about the "Gospel of Jesus' Wife" that came out this week was interesting. Haven't gone back to look in the Bible, but I'm curious, if something isn't mentioned at all either way in the Bible, does it mean it didn't happen/wasn't true? Or does it just mean that editors somewhere along the line felt it didn't suit their purposes?
ReplyDeleteI remember having a little bit of a discussion on this in Bethel class a few years ago and the conclusion was "we don't know" if I remember correctly. If Jesus were following Jewish tradition, he would have had a wife and as large a family as possible.
Randy
You're the second person to suggest that. There are a couple of ways to tackle this. One would be to use a question on this (Did Jesus marry and have children?) from Christian Piatt's follow-up book "Banned Questions about Jesus." Another is to look at the question from the perspective of how the books were chosen for the Bible. What struck me is how quickly people are turning a fragment with some sentence fragments into a lost gospel. I came across an interesting commentary about that elsewhere.
DeleteEither way, that would probably make for an interesting discussion. I'll put it on the list.
Just because it’s not commented on in the Bible doesn’t mean that it was edited out or intentionally omitted. It may be that the original witness didn’t consider it pertinent to the subject at hand. For instance, if I were telling you about a fistfight between Nelson and Joe over the Bible being taken literally, I might not mention that Joe routinely beats his wife or that if you look closely, you’ll see mites in Nelson’s beard.
ReplyDelete