But could it be wrong?

My friend, a courageous LGBTQ advocate, went to a musical over the weekend and posted about it on Facebook.  I caught up with her at work today to talk about it.

The musical was "Pray the Gay Away".  It shares the experience of LGBTQ people as related to the Christian church.  It has a scene depicting shock therapy to "correct" a gay man's improper sexual urges.  My friend told me she wanted me to see the musical.

I told her I was uncomfortable going because the way it was marketed made it appear that people of faith would be lampooned.  I asked her if it gave a caricature of the right wing fundamentalist or if it dealt thoughtfully with the challenge Christians face between loving LGBTQ people and upholding their belief in the authority of scripture.

She told me there is a scene in the musical near the end when a parent of a child who has come out sits with a clergy member, discussing the scriptures that forbid homosexual behavior.  She said the mother asks the poignant question, "But could it be wrong?"  The mother is depicted in the impossible place of choosing between loving/accepting her child as he is, and upholding her devotion to the church and the formulation of the Christian faith she has always been taught.  "But could the Bible be wrong?" 

Could the Bible be wrong?  It's a foundation-shaking question for those who are Jews or Christians.  It is so problematic that most Christians I know will not even consider any answer besides a certain, loud "NO!"   To many the answer must be "NO" because the Bible is God's Word, and God cannot lie, so there cannot be any lies, contradictions, or inconsistencies in it's compilation of 66 pieces of literature.  The Bible is without error in everything it touches, and so it absolutely cannot be wrong about anything.

Unfortunately, most who hold this view have learned to ignore or look away from the places in the Bible where such declarations come into conflict with the Bible's actual content. Without going to the effort in this writing to cite chapter and verse, here are just a few that come to the top of my mind.

• Genesis 1 vs Genesis 2-3.  There are two creation stories.  The order of when animals were created related to humans is different in each story.  
• The four resurrection narratives in the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) have many factual differences between them.  How many women went to the tomb? How many angels were there? Did the women tell the disciples or not? (many more exist)
• There are instances where the historical narrative found in the Kings-Samuel books is modified (corrected?) in the Chronicles books.  Easiest to notice is the time that King David was incited to take a census of the people.  Kings-Samuel says an evil spirit from God incited the act.  Chronicles states Satan or "the accuser" was the source.

Such "errors" are in the category of contradictions.  Two versions of a historical event are presented, and the facts don't match.  They can't both (or all) be correct.  One must be right and the others wrong.

Beyond contradictions there are teachings that have been proven false through modern (and ancient) science.  Take the age of the earth and the universe for example.  Multiple disciplines of science have studied the age of the universe through different methods.  The result?  The age of the universe is somewhere around 14 billion years give or take a few million.  Aging the earth based upon the chronology of the Old Testament, the creation of the cosmos and the earth happened somewhere around 6000 years ago.  There is no single Bible verse to point to in order to reach that conclusion, but it was done mathematically by 17th century Irish Archbishop James Ussher after studying the timelines and genealogies of the Old Testament.  

Although there are still Christians who hold to this "young earth" view, most Christians that I know have accepted the scientific body of evidence pointing to a "big bang" around 14 billion years ago.  Although they might not say it out loud, such a concession as this must bring pause when asked the question "Can the Bible be wrong about anything?"  If most Christians are honest, they must admit they have departed from the "party line" when it comes to the age of the universe.

Another type of "error" that most would agree is found in the Bible are social conventions, set up by God's laws, that no longer work in today's world.  Slavery is routinely accepted in the Old and New Testament, and indeed the history of the US Civil War uncovers the uncomfortable truth that it was Southern Christians who fought hardest on Biblical grounds to prove that slavery was ordained by God.  

Old Testament stories and laws regularly depict women as one step up from slaves, but nowhere near equal with men.  Women are forced to enter into plural marriages, forced to sleep with their masters, and killed when their foolish father makes a vow to please God.  They are considered unclean when menstruating, and denied entrance into the inner courts of the temple where only men were allowed (let alone the holy places reserved for male priests exclusively).  Such views of women have long been abandoned by people all across our society.  Such views reflect the values of patriarchal, tribal communities upon which Iron Age societies were built.  Nearly all Christians would say, "Yes, the Old Testament is wrong when it so severely limits legitimate roles of women in God's Kingdom."

In fact it is interesting to note that when speaking of the role of women in society, in the family, and in the church, the scriptures do not speak with one voice.  Paul, oft-quoted as the one setting in stone the prohibition of women from leadership roles in the church, is the same one who penned "there is no longer any male or female, but all are one in Christ!" (Gal. 3:28)  Although groundbreaking for his time, Paul still fell back into cultural norms that limited the leadership roles of women.  And yet...he pointed the church forward to a time when women would experience unity with men in the Kingdom.

So..."Could it be wrong?"  Could the very few verses in the Bible that speak about homosexuality be wrong?  Could they represent ancient cultural norms and pre-scientific ideas about gender and sexual preference?  Could it be that when Jesus says the most important thing in all of God's Kingdom is love that he meant it?  Could it be that God is much more concerned with the amount and depth of love a person displays than the color of his skin, her gender, and a person's sexual preference?  Could it be that God is on the side of love because in fact God is love?

It is my conviction that yes, the Bible could be wrong, because it was written in a certain time and culture by humans writing for specific cultural, religious reasons.  They were inspired by God to meet the needs of their time and place, but throughout history God continues to speak and continues to inspire humans toward a greater understanding of God's love for all.  If you disagree with me, as many will, I hope you will at least think and pray about the reasons I've put forth for my convictions.  I hope you will possibly admit to places where the strong "NO!" has not actually been upheld in the practice of your Christian faith.  I hope also that our love for one another as members of God's Kingdom will continue and grow.

Speaking of a particularly controversial issue of his time and culture, namely whether converts to Christianity needed to be circumcised, Paul wrote this: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6)

May followers of Christ insert whatever controversial issue divides our churches, society, and politics into that verse and follow Paul to his groundbreaking conclusion.