Rethinking Faith: Badly Using the Bible, Almost Christian, and Moving Forward

This month let's explore ways we shouldn't use the Bible, ponder two memoirs, and question how to move forward even when we are afraid.

Rethinking Faith: July 2024

Welcome to the July issue of Rethinking Faith. This month we will explore a couple of ways we shouldn’t use the Bible, ponder two memoirs of broken Christianity, and question how we can move forward step by step even when we are afraid.

Ways We Shouldn’t Use the Bible

This is not political. I’m not trying to bash a certain party in favor of another. I’m personally an independent when it comes to politics and I try to keep my writing free from anything political because I don’t want to alienate anyone. However, the things that were said at the Republican National Convention this week regarding the Bible are not something that I can ignore—not because of politics, but because of my faith in Jesus and my respect for the Scriptures.

As I read a Substack essay from A Public Witness called “The Bible According to the RNC,” I found myself cringing. It was all too familiar. Numerologists (people who are superstitious about numbers in the Bible and try to connect them to prophecies about today) had somehow decided that since the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump occurred at 6:11pm, this was connected to Ephesians 6:11 which talks about the armor of God.

Photo by Aaron Burden

There are so many things I could say about this. I’ll start with what do the other sixty-five books of the Bible that have a chapter six and verse eleven say? Let’s look at a few for the fun of it.

“The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence”

Genesis 6:11.

Yikes! This feels a bit more applicable to our time in history.

“They put the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest, the gold mice, and the images of the sores”

1 Samuel 6:11.

Okay…

“and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need like an armed man”

Proverbs 6:11.

“I do not condone the use of rigged scales or a bag of deceptive weights.

Micah 6:11.

“Give us today our daily bread”

Matthew 6:11.

I think I’ve made my point. The Bible is not a magical book of spells. And yet more and more people seem to be treating it with superstition. I wrote about this in my book, Religious Rebels. In fact I’m going to quote myself from Chapter Four: Words of God.

“As a teen and young adult, I was never taught how to correctly read the Bible. I never thought to consider the context of the verse and passage, the culture of the original audience, or the author’s intent. Any verse could mean anything to anyone. As a result, it was easy for spiritual authorities to control those around them because they could make god say absolutely anything, and who were we to disagree?

We were told to look for rhemas as we read the Bible. I was taught that a rhema (in reality, the Greek word for word) was a verse or portion of Scripture that the Holy Spirit brings to our attention with application to a current situation or need for direction. We were supposed to use these words or phrases to guide our lives. It didn’t matter if the word used in the King James Version had a different meaning than today, or if the verses were out of context, or if the prophecy was about the nation of Israel or even Jesus Himself. The Bible became like a religious Ouija board. We attempted to use God’s Word to find specific answers to our questions, and then we claimed that they came from god. God told people to move to specific towns, leave their jobs, and marry off their children through this method. It sounds crazy now, but when spiritual leaders are claiming to have found hidden mysteries and secret revelations, their followers feel the pressure to find them too.

It makes total sense, after going through this kind of craziness, that people can’t handle the Bible anymore. It was used to control and abuse them. How in the world can it be good or from God? It’s way easier to completely reject something and find a new thing to believe. Seriously, how in the world are you supposed to find the truth when it’s only a foot or an inch away from the lie?”

Speakers at the RNC continued to use Bible verses throughout the convention. They twisted God’s words to the nation of Israel and claimed those promises for the United States. I am disturbed by this, but I am more disturbed that many (if not most) Christians today do not know enough about reading Scripture to catch these errors.

We haven’t been taught to use good hermeneutics. We don’t understand the importance of context. We haven’t been told that we can’t just read our modern English translations of an ancient text literally and assume that we know all there is to know. We don’t understand that it wasn’t written to us—for us yes, but not to us. We are Biblically illiterate and we don’t even know it.

I’m going to be very bold.

It is spiritually unethical to use the Bible in this superstitious way. It is a form of religious abuse. And it is dishonoring to God. Let’s do better. Let’s learn to read the Bible correctly and with integrity so that we can know actual truth, catch lies, and share the Truth with those around us.

When a Religious Encounter is Almost Christian

I accidentally signed up for an Audible account and before I realized that I was paying for it and stopped, I received four credits for audio books. So, I’ve been listening to a couple memoirs that I would never have had time to read. Both of them have felt adjacent to some of my own experiences. And both of them have left me devastated.

The first heartbreaking memoir was Baptistland by Christa Brown. I’ll be honest, I almost couldn’t listen to it. The descriptions of sexual abuse by a youth pastor were horrific, and she didn’t even go into much detail. Christa also experienced abuse, neglect, and dysfunction within her own family. Her church not only didn’t stop the sexual abuse, even though leaders knew about it, they also refused to deal with it later on.

Christa has been a huge part in the SBC being forced to admit and take steps to deal with the clergy sexual abuse that has been happening for decades within their churches. And yet even in the “dealing with it,” the SBC has been more interested in covering their own backside than actually helping survivors or stopping predators. It’s awful.

Next I started Rift by Cait West. I am only a few chapters in, but I am already familiar with the strict reformed theology and patriarchal homeschooling community she experienced. I lived next to these kinds of families, even if I wasn’t in one myself. Again, Cait’s story breaks my heart.

The stories are hard to hear, and honestly I don’t know if this is a recommendation for these books or not. But the thing that I keep coming back to is the version of Christianity these women were exposed to and the god they were told about. It is familiar; he is familiar. That is the god I left behind when I walked away following the Real Jesus. Neither of these women consider themselves Christian anymore. And I can’t blame them.

The religion they encountered was almost Christian. It sounded close and to some it might appear to be the same thing. They used the same words I would use. They experienced many of the same outward actions. But almost immediately I noticed the religious god they believed they had to appease. I heard the condemnation and felt the pressure of being good enough to make god happy. Salvation had less to do with Jesus and more to do with our behavior once we were Christian.

“Why?” I wondered for the umpteenth time. “Why me? Why was I spared? Why did I meet Jesus when I wasn’t even looking? Why do I still believe?”

I don’t have a good answer, but I’m working on a new book that explores this question, tells more of my story, and works to redefine the mystifying grace of God. Stay tuned!

God Can’t Move a Parked Car

Have you ever heard this silly phrase? I think sometimes God does a little bit of shoving in our lives to get us rolling, but often He patiently waits. If we are resistant, He doesn’t force us. God doesn’t have the timeline we do, and He isn’t worried. I feel like most of my writing life (the last ten or so years), I’ve had the parking break on. I’m reluctantly moving forward, dragging my feet, and claiming I’m following God.

Why has this been my consistent pattern?

Because I’m afraid. Afraid I can’t do whatever it is He is asking me to do. Afraid I’m not good enough. Afraid of trying hard just to fail. Afraid of rejection.

Does this feel familiar to you? I think most of us operate with quite a bit of fear in our lives.

Last week I went to the Speak Up Conference with Carol Kent for the fourth time in the last ten years. It was my first writing conference. It was the one where I first heard about Credo House Publishers—the hybrid company who published my book last year. And it is the conference where I first had a book to sell on the book table. That’s a wild feeling!

At the conference I was challenged by my long time friend and mentor, Brenda Yoder, to evaluate if my writing is a hobby or a profession. And if it is a profession, then to make consistent time for it. I need to sacrifice for it even if my family and friends don’t understand.

I came home from the conference with opportunities that I can pursue if I choose to. But I can also ignore them if I want. I can drag my feet until they are gone. Or I can start taking steps and let God lead. I want to move forward. I want to walk through open doors even if I’m still afraid. Last night I told my family what I needed and got an hour of uninterrupted time to work on this letter. Then I got up early to finish it. I’m making plans for the next thing. One step at a time.

How about you? What are you hesitating about? Is there something God has asked you to do that you are afraid of? What would happen if you put your car in gear and pushed the gas? Let’s give it a go!

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As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or comments. You can find me on Threads, Instagram, Facebook, my website, and on my podcast Looking for the Real God. I’d love to connect with you on any of these places!

My podcast, Religious Rebels, can be found on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and more. New episodes drop every other Sunday at noon on YouTube and 5pm on Substack and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

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