Reading the Bible

A writer for Slate recently read the Old Testament of the Bible and wrote an article, (and a book) about the experience. Reading the Bible does not seem like that big of a deal, until you consider how few people actually do. Instead of displaying any stereotypes I have of religious groups in the US, I'll just reference the writer's point that only evangelical protestants really read the Bible.

I recently began reading the Bible, with the hope of at least being able to talk more intelligently about what it does and does not say. My main reason was to learn more about how and when the Bible disapproves of homosexuality. But I also wanted a more general understanding.

This is no small undertaking, and I have made limited progress. But my thoughts so far are similar to David Plotz's.

After reading about the genocides, the plagues, the murders, the mass enslavements, the ruthless vengeance for minor sins (or none at all), and all that smiting—every bit of it directly performed, authorized, or approved by God—I can only conclude that the God of the Hebrew Bible, if He existed, was awful, cruel, and capricious. He gives us moments of beauty—such sublime beauty and grace!—but taken as a whole, He is no God I want to obey and no God I can love.

I have similar feelings about God's role in the world we live in as a whole, and maybe one day I will share a more personal post I have written on the topic.

I also understand Plotz when he says that his heroes in the Bible are those who question God. In fact, one of my favorite parts of Slaughter House Five is when the narrator tells of his love/respect for Lot's wife because she looked back at God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah even though it turned her into a pillar of salt.

I plan to continue reading the Bible when I have time, although it will be a very slow process. It is interesting reading, although long passages of boring narration surround the interesting and relevant stories. I'm sure I'll have more to say as I read.