On Lenses
This morning, I was talking to a well-known Bible teacher, scholar, author, and songwriter in Franklin, TN. He was describing an incident that happened recently that has him considering getting off of social media altogether. In response to a recent public event, he had posted a statement from a public official that he considered pretty straightforward, appropriate, and “Biblical”, meaning, I think, in alignment with how he understands the Bible. One response he got from another well-known songwriter had him reeling, as she condemned his approval of the public statement, including the fact that he had considered it “Biblical.”
This is one of thousands upon thousands of interactions that happen every day, particularly on social media, that demonstrate how people, even people of good faith, who read and study the Bible as a way of life, over decades, can disagree strongly about what is and is not “Biblical.” It reminds me of a conversation I had many years ago, while I was doing my first master’s degree in theology, when a church friend said to me, “I don’t know why people have to read all these other books; I just read the Bible.” I know what he meant, but he couldn’t be more wrong.
No one “just reads” the Bible.
For one thing, most of us read Bibles that have been translated from the Hebrew and Greek, and every translation of the Bible is necessarily an interpretation; choices have to be made. That’s why there are so many different translations of the Bible. Secondly, most people read the Bible from within some church or tradition or having learned something about it from someone else along the way, maybe as a kid. Thirdly, every one of us carries differences in our own experiences and perspectives from our lives, which means we see thing and hear things and read things slightly differently. Think of these as glasses or “lenses’ that we all wear as we look at the world. Here’s how I put it in a forthcoming book (forgive the formatting difference):