I grew up reading the Bible. In fact, I had my own children’s version of it with pictures and all, which I opened up quite frequently as a kid. Later, as a young adult, I would attend a number of Bible studies where I became engrossed in all of its language and principles. I’d also expand the number of versions of it in my own library of books to more than just a few as time went on. But somewhere along the line, I stopped reading and studying it as much and instead began expanding my exploration of religion and spirituality. Looking back, especially with what’s going on in the world nowadays, I think that’s because I started seeing the Bible being used as a weapon of discrimination and judgment rather one of unconditional love and light.
Now, all around the world, including even right here in the United States, there’s a constant war raging on with the Bible at the center of it. Churches are throwing this book at one group of people after another citing passage after passage to justify their arguments and build their defense. Meanwhile on the other side of this war are all those classes of people being persecuted and feeling less and less of a desire to follow a God that supposedly doesn’t love them for who they are.
Because of all this, what I feel most these days in regards to this war going on is sadness for both sides. This isn’t the God I’ve come to know and believe in by any means. This isn’t what I learned to do through any of my years and years of studying and learning the good that’s within the Bible.
It seems like every week now I experience one persecution-based incident after another. Just the other day in fact I had a conversation with a Christian woman at a local business who looked at me and said “You know homosexuality is totally a sin and against God. It’s right there in the Bible.” What I found most ironic in her statement was how cold and unloving it was. Because she like so many other Christian people I’ve met continue to maintain the belief they are all welcoming as they try to lead others to the warmth and acceptance of Jesus Christ, yet they practice the exact opposite by saying things just like this.
A sad reality is that if I had a dollar for every time I’ve been on the receiving end of someone using the Bible’s words against me, I’d probably have enough money to go buy a brand new home. It just breaks my heart why so many people continue to believe this is exactly what the Bible teaches them to do.
The main thing I try to take away from the Bible today is what Christ believed in. And that is to love everyone unconditionally. My only goal in life these days is to become a beacon of light that guides others to the God of their understanding, regardless of whoever or whatever they’re makeup is. What it’s not is a quest to throw a book that was written thousands of years ago at someone and say they are doing wrong or are being sinful.
Everyone says the Bible is the exact word of God, yet none of us were there when it was written. None of us have seen the exact scrolls it came from. None of us truly understand the context of what was going on back in those days either. So how do we know it’s the EXACT word of God? When we watch the news, is what we are seeing on the news or reading in a paper the EXACT truth of what actually happened? Most likely not. I honestly believe the same holds true for the Bible.
I must say though that there really is a wonderful spiritual language present throughout the Bible with some truly beautiful principles to practice in life. But in the book I know, the one I studied, and the one I’m still living by today, none of those principles include discriminating, persecuting, or segregating anyone.
So hopefully one day the Bible won’t be used as the weapon of choice anymore for a religious war that will never have any real victor, and instead people will come to see it as just one way, along side plenty of others, to connect with the Source. Because it’s then and only then when people will see the Bible as a whole is about one thing and one thing only, and that’s unconditional love.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson