Tuesday, March 03, 2009
'Conservative-Liberal Dichotomy of the Bible'
This is interesting. Some of the other stuff on this site is wack, but I've just glanced at it. But this is good:
It is typical for many unfamiliar with the Bible to assume that the Bible is 'conservative' in its world view and that it encapsulates and supports the 'right wing' point of view. One of the reasons for this popular misconception is that the 'right wing' expression of religion is so loud and vocal, and this seems to relate to the research which indicates that the relationship which exists between conservatism and fear and right wing viewpoints and resistance to social change finds expression in a greater tendency towards aggression. Because right wing religion is more forceful and aggressive in its approach it tends to overpower more liberal expressions of the religious tendency, and this aggressive occupation of the spot light, combined with intolerance for ambiguity and differing points of view combine to leave 'liberals' voiceless in the dialog between church and the wider society (you will never find a liberal perspective elucidated on Christian television, as one example, since Christian television has been aggressively dominated by the Religious Right, and due to their intolerance for ambiguity or diversity and their belief system which incorporates only certain absolutes, they deliberately promote only their own narrow point of view. The end result of this process is a false impression among many people outside the church that both the Bible and the Christian religion are right wing in their orientation).
Read it all.
--ER
It is typical for many unfamiliar with the Bible to assume that the Bible is 'conservative' in its world view and that it encapsulates and supports the 'right wing' point of view. One of the reasons for this popular misconception is that the 'right wing' expression of religion is so loud and vocal, and this seems to relate to the research which indicates that the relationship which exists between conservatism and fear and right wing viewpoints and resistance to social change finds expression in a greater tendency towards aggression. Because right wing religion is more forceful and aggressive in its approach it tends to overpower more liberal expressions of the religious tendency, and this aggressive occupation of the spot light, combined with intolerance for ambiguity and differing points of view combine to leave 'liberals' voiceless in the dialog between church and the wider society (you will never find a liberal perspective elucidated on Christian television, as one example, since Christian television has been aggressively dominated by the Religious Right, and due to their intolerance for ambiguity or diversity and their belief system which incorporates only certain absolutes, they deliberately promote only their own narrow point of view. The end result of this process is a false impression among many people outside the church that both the Bible and the Christian religion are right wing in their orientation).
Read it all.
--ER
Comments:
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The dichotomy is not in the document, The Bible, anymore than it is in the document The U.S. Constitution, or the Bagvagita, or Torah, or the Pagan bibles the Iliad or Odyssey.
It is in the mind of he/she who interprets them. Most of Paul's seven authentic books with the New Testament and the Gospel of John are very very Liberal books that have been subsumed by a Literalistic Church.
Parallel question is: If we hold the first books of the Bible as allegorical, why then do we not understand the last books of the Bible as such?
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It is in the mind of he/she who interprets them. Most of Paul's seven authentic books with the New Testament and the Gospel of John are very very Liberal books that have been subsumed by a Literalistic Church.
Parallel question is: If we hold the first books of the Bible as allegorical, why then do we not understand the last books of the Bible as such?
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