Sacrifice the Bible on the Altar of Love

This morning my husband, Britt gave Blythe my car to take to Best Buy so she could pick up a new cell phone.  A good plan except for the slow leak in my left-front tire. When I pointed out this problem to my husband, he began to worry. Without anyway to contact our daughter (her cell phone had broken) to hurry home, Britt went looking for her but couldn't find her. He drove to Best Buy, Hastings bookstore, the library, and any other place he thought she might go. Every few minutes he called me in the hopes she had already arrived home safely. Convinced she was stuck on the side of the road somewhere with a flat, we breathed a huge sigh of relief when she drove up the driveway two hours later having gone to Half-Price bookstore and lunch. Good parents worry and do everything possible to keep their children safe.

I spent all afternoon researching the first fifteen verses of Genesis 22 and for my minister and Hebrew speaking friends, I could make a strong, academic and spiritual argument for why Abraham never intended to slay Issac, nor was Yahweh even asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son.  Instead, I want to pass God's test of me this way: if I must interpret the text as it is traditionally presented -- Abraham showed courageous obedience to God by his willingness to murder his only child -- then I reject this story. The Bible is wrong and this part is not inspired by any holy being. This is a text of terror, murder and the opposite of love -- hate.

Which is why this comic is spot on in pointing out the failure of the Bible to be all things to all people in modern times. This is one story we should all throw out especially if we're required to read  it literally or to call it inerrant. Any God who demands the sacrifice of a child is not loving; this God is a monster.

Why read the Bible literally when the writers never meant for it to be so? It is not a history of the middle east, neither is it a science text book about the origins of the universe. It's not even a good example of human relationships with all the raping, pillaging, murdering and destroying going on.  Our best option is to discern where it derives inspiration from God and hence, where we can glean spiritual truths. Jesus argued and debated with the texts of the Hebrew Bible as any good rabbi does because he believed higher truths could be discovered. It's why he taught in parables so each of us, first as listener then as reader, needed to work for our spiritual truths. "Let those with ears, Hear!"

Abandon your simplistic translations of the Bible from child hood: God didn't create the world in six days; God didn't flood the world and kill everything off; God didn't kill people in Sodom and Gomorrah; God didn't murder the first-born of Egypt; and God didn't demand the sacrifice of one little boy, Issac. And the virgin birth, well, let's not go there.

But do embrace these truths: God loves, nurtures and cares for each of us while also making us clean up our messes, be kind to strangers, to respect the earth and to push us to be better human beings -- just like any good parent would do.