Willful Misrepresentation of the Bible

Atheists and other Secularists willfully misrepresent the Bible, taking stories out of context to prove whatever point they want. In my discussions with these people, the foundation of their argument is that what’s in the Bible is what’s advocated by Believers. So all the rape and sodomy, lies and other bad behaviors is what Believers justify as acceptable in their [atheists] view. A couple examples would be the story of Sodom and Gomorrah when Lot offers his daughters to the mob outside his house to protect the travelers he had as guests, or the story in Judges (Chapter 19) when there was a similar situation, and again daughters were offered. Ultimately, and oversimplified, these are stories of what happens when we turn our backs to God. In many of my discussions with atheists, they forward these stories as advocacy for demeaning and raping women, and other stories as advocating despicable behavior; as if religious people have that market cornered.

Here is a story from pagan, polytheistic society. Using the same advocacy principle, is this about it being sanctioned behavior?

Plutarch writes this story circa 730’s BCE:

“[Archias] could not win over the boy (Actaeon, with whom he was infatuated), so he decided to kidnap him. He gathered together many friends and servants and went on a ‘komos’ (a group of drunken men in the streets at night after a party) against the home of Melissus [Actaeon’s father] and tried to extract the youth. But the father and his people fought back, and the neighbors as well ran out and engaged the attackers in a tug-of-war, so that Actaeon was pulled apart and killed. Archias’s party then made themselves scarce.”

Usually these “komos” or “revellings” were tolerated. Would one, using the advocacy principle, say that this was advocating murder, homosexuality, pedophilia, or rape? I’m positing the absurd to show the absurd. This is only a story of a bad event. The stories at the beginning of this piece were also stories of bad events, representing unspeakable behavior by everybody involved. From the Judeo-Christian perspective, they represent what happens when humanity turns their back on God.

The Apostle Paul, stating what we get when we have a society rebelling against God:

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

An atheist friend criticizing Christians’ behavior said she wished Christians would read their own Bible. I wish atheists would. Christians do read it at whatever level they can, and often fall short of the ideal of Christian understanding, belief and behavior. Often we misunderstand the Bible. That’s easy to do; it’s really complex, and rich, and full of everything about life. But they don’t willfully lie about what’s in it; and if it isn’t willful lying, then the criticizers should take some time to understand what’s being said themselves, before attacking what they don’t understand.

Dark Hearts and Churches

I was saddened to read about a church in Georgia that had between $200,000 and $400,000 stolen over a 10-year period by a church secretary. Victory Fellowship in Bremen, Georgia has about 250 members. That amount of money for a church that size is a beyond a huge loss. Our church experienced the same thing, and I don't think we've ever fully recovered. Both the Georgia church and ours caught and prosecuted the respective church secretaries, but the money will never be recovered.

I think, as Christians, there's an implicit trust of people of the Faith. We also tend to see the good in others first. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it sometimes causes us to lose the Biblical view that we humans have dark hearts. That's part of what the story of the "Fall" is about. We were made in God's likeness, and have a choice to grow in it, or reject God. Mankind rejected God and as a result we have dark hearts. We become self important and God gets diminished.

We have alienated ourselves from God. At the core of all our human problems is this. Not poverty, lack of 'social justice', ignorance, or anything else you want to pin it on. It is that we've rejected the pure Spirit of God. We have rejected pure Love. We have put ourselves before Him. Secularists and atheists, advocating for the separation from God in the first instance, and atheists denial, only take us back to the worst times of human history. Paganism does not value human life at all. At least Judaism and Christianity teach to love, care for, and value others.

The story of the flood, whether you believe it happened or not, is about how Man can become so vile and disgusting we shouldn't really exist. That's sad. People of Faith work away from that the best we can, and tend to trust people that we perceive are trying live more in an imitation of Christ. Sadly, as in these cases of theft, our dark hearts are always there, always an influence. We are all sinners. Sadly, even among people of Faith, we must be aware of our nature, and be constantly vigilant of harm people will do to ourselves and the institutions we cherish.