Straitjacket for God

At the end of a presentation on world hunger, the program leader invited comments from the audience.

The first person to respond said, “It’s like Jesus said, if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he can feed himself for a lifetime.”

The discussion leader agreed that this was one of Jesus’ most important parables.

But it didn’t come from Jesus at all. It came from Confucius, around 500 B.C.

Perhaps it’s natural that people tend to attribute quotations to the Bible, the largest single source of our common quotations, followed by Shakespeare. I was dismayed that the facilitator, who should have known better, would agree that it came from the Bible. I wish people could be more accurate.

But I find it interesting that the saying becomes more believable if it comes from the Bible than if it comes from ancient China.

About 15 years ago, I coined my own saying: “Liberals believe what the Bible says if it’s supported by science or by their life experience; conservatives believe science and life only if it’s supported by the Bible.”

At the time, I thought it was a joke. I no longer think so.

I look around – especially at the U.S. – and I see conservatives accepting quantum physics, nanotechnology, gene splicing, and gas-guzzling SUVs, because none of them contradict the Bible. But they reject evolution, because it disagrees with the biblical story of Creation.

For the same reason, they whole-heartedly welcome psychiatry, capitalism, calculus, and Viagra. But they reject abortion and homosexuality, because of a few biblical verses.

Please note – the point is not whether abortion and alternate sexual orientations are right or wrong. The point is the basis on which people reach that conclusion. Abortion may well be the murder of an unborn child. But would conservatives still oppose abortion if the Bible endorsed it? I doubt it.

I’m reminded that when a few radical voices began advocating the abolition of slavery in the late 1700s, the most strident opposition came from those who insisted that abolishing slavery was contrary to God’s will?.

And how did they know God’s will? The Bible told them so.

A minister friend’s daughter rejected his faith years ago. Recently, she went to a worship service with him. As they came out, she admitted that she had enjoyed the singing, appreciated the sermon... “The only problem,” she said, “was that everything was about the Bible. Don’t you people ever read anything else?”

I have sometimes suggested that in the new challenges facing our world – from climate change to nuclear weapons to toxic chemicals that never existed before – God may have to communicate with us in unprecedented ways. Probably not through the church. More likely through people who don’t wear a Christian badge on their sleeves, like Al Gore, David Suzuki, or Percy Schmeiser.

And I’ve been assured that God cannot act in ways that are not already defined by the Bible.

Amazing – a book has become a straitjacket for the Almighty.

Jim Taylor welcomes comments. Send e-mails to rewrite@shaw.ca

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