Evangelical Word(s) of the Week

"The Bible says ..."

“The Bible says …”

Somewhat depressingly, it was not that many years ago that I found myself in a conversation with a church leader about whether women should be allowed to serve on the Board of Elders at the church that we both attended. (See last week’s Evangelically Departed for more on Biblical Womanhood).

The man with whom I was speaking was part of the DNA of that particular local church. We liked each other as people, but we could not stand each other in relation to the direction that we thought the church should take. He was a soft-hearted, talented, and friendly man who had a very conservative (Plymouth Brethren) interpretation of the Bible and of what should happen in the church and the world. When I was Associate Minister at the church years earlier there had been a search committee to find a Senior Pastor. This man’s wife was on that committee. She did not attend the final meeting of the committee apparently because to do so would have been exercising spiritual authority over men in the church.

The conversation I was having with the man years later was in advance of the Board of Elders considering whether to welcome women as members of the Board. Obviously this man was against such a move. I was in full support of inclusive leadership. I think that we really did try to get along even though we both had strong views. In the conversation we were trying to lay some ground rules for how we might interact when talking about the issue. I think that my request upset him. I said, “I think that we should agree that when we are talking about the issue none of us should start a sentence with ‘The Bible says…’.” Perhaps this was a bit aggressive on my part. He started sentences like that fairly regularly when he disagreed with others on the Board. I said to him; “There is not one of us here who wants to disregard what the Bible says. We simply have different ideas about how to interpret scripture. When disagreeing about proper interpretation, using the term ‘the Bible says’ is only an attempt to say that God entirely agrees with you.” To the man’s credit, he did not take a shot after I said this. He did not argue that I did not care what the Bible says.

It is possible to use the words “The Bible says” in positive and helpful ways. We can remark about how the Bible tells us of God’s abiding care and love and kindness. We can remind one another of the many rich things that the Bible says,
Love one another.
Do not Judge.
Rejoice.
Consider others before you think of yourself.
He restores my soul.

We should recall that the Bible also says, “Slaves, obey your masters” and that one day, in response to a prayer by Joshua, God made the sun stand still (as if the earth was fixed and the sun was not). The Bible also says to give all you have to the poor, and that it’s pretty much impossible for rich people to enter heaven. The point is that everyone who cares about what the Bible says also interprets what the Bible says. My friend wanted to use the term “the Bible says” in such a way to argue that the Bible was in full agreement with his particular view.

It is possible to use the words, “The Bible says” in trying to defeat another person who has a different view than we have. Even if we happen to be right about the argument, using the Bible in such a way separates us from the other person. I could see through how he did this even if he could not.

However, to this day I am more aware of my own failure and sin in how I related to him that day. I would still argue that my point was correct. Saying “the Bible says” in order to win an argument is not helpful. The trouble is that I think that I used this point to try to neutralize the man’s voice. That was not the best way. I think that he dehumanized others by his argument and perspective, but I dehumanized him by cleverly negating his involvement. I could have done so much better.

The hopeful Christian gospel is about coming together, not being driven apart from those with whom we disagree. This does not mean that we give in on matters of equality, but it does mean that we always seek to see the humanity of every other person. Using the Bible in any other way is something less than seeing it as the Word of God.