But the Bible Says …

The Bible wasn’t originally written for the general audience of today’s world. But is there more than one way to read it?

Two women — we’ll call them “Sue” and “Joan” — were longtime friends and members of the same congregation. They strongly disagreed about how the church should respond to one of the social justice issues of the day. Despite their friendship, it was clear that Sue couldn’t support Joan’s take on the issue, and she confronted Joan using phrases like, “But the Bible says …” and quoting the verses she had in mind. Joan didn’t try to respond, but finally, after Sue asked, “So what do you do with this Bible verse?” and quoted it, Joan said, “I don’t do anything with it. Not everything in the Bible was written for our day and age.” Sue clearly didn’t like that answer, and the two agreed to disagree.

In some ways, Sue and Joan are stand-ins for many Christians these days who approach the Bible differently from other Christians. Sometimes we use the Bible as Sue did, not only as...