Spotlight- Movie Review

 Spotlight

Director

  Tom McCarthy

Writers

  Tom McCarthy

  Josh Singer

US Release

6 November 2015

My wife and I saw the award-winning film, Spotlight. We both came away shocked and disturbed. The actors did a superb job at evoking a strong emotional response to the outrageous behavior of church and community leaders who covered-up child sexual abuse in Boston. The damage to human lives is horrendous.

For me, the timing of the film is ironic. Two days before seeing the film, I reviewed proofs on my book A House Divided: Sexuality, Morality, and Christian Cultures. The book represents two years of work examining sexuality in the church from the perspective of moral psychology. I aim to promote open discussions of healthy Christian sexuality. But I also wrote about sexual abuse because it would be irresponsible to ignore it. As Spotlight illustrates, sex abuse happens in the church and a lot of people get seriously hurt.

Spotlight is the name of the investigative unit at the Boston Globe Newspaper. The movie, Spotlight, is a dramatic film of the investigation into the cases of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the area of Boston Massachusetts. 

The investigation begins in 2001 when the new managing editor, Marty Baron, meets Walter "Robby" Robinson of the spotlight team. Baron read an article alleging a cover up of a priest's child molestation by Cardinal Bernard Law and encourages the team to investigate. The investigation leads to more discoveries of abuse by many more priests.

Spotlight Lessons

There’s so much that could be said about sex-abuse scandals in churches. Here’s a look at six lessons using a moral framework of six dimensions derived from the work of Jonathan Haidt (The Righteous Mind ) and his colleagues.

1. Care vs. Harm

We expect churches to be in the business of caring about people—not just souls but wholes—as H. Norman Wright says. In Spotlight we find a common practice of caring more about one’s colleagues than about the damage done to the victims and survivors. The message of the Christian gospels directs attention to the social outcasts during the time of Jesus’ ministry.

Our moral impulse is to care for the young and vulnerable. Children do not survive without parental care. Righteous anger naturally rises when we see harm done to children. It’s a perversion of morality to turn the care-harm focus on an organization rather than the people an organization ought to serve.

Estimated percentages of child sexual abuse in the U.S. are 27% for girls and 16% of boys.  See “Nature and Scope…”

2. Equality and Justice

The film shows the lack of justice accorded those who suffered deeply from child sex-abuse. A friend of mine, psychologist Ev Worthington, often speaks about the problem of the “justice gap.” We all have an innate sense of injustice. We are motivated to close the gap—to seek justice. Anger fueled vengeance seeks to right the wrongs in society. And sometimes it’s personal as seen in the film. I felt angry. Anger is a good thing when destructive people and their unjust systems are dismantled or reformed.

3. Oppression and the need for freedom

Following the publication of the sex abuse scandal, the Boston Globe was inundated with phone calls from area victims. The breaking of the sex-scandal was like blowing up a dam. People in chains to memories of sexual violence came forward. The silence of churches and organizations is oppressive. Silence can prevent victims from becoming survivors. Christian attitudes toward ethnic minorities and women are two other examples of religiously justified oppression. Faith ought to set people free. Too often leaders of faith keep people in chains.

Silence can prevent victims from becoming survivors.

4. Respect for Authority

A society cannot survive if the participants do not respect legitimate authority. Religious and political leaders are human beings who often act out of self-interest. Sadly, religious leaders often hide behind a cloak of godly authority. At times religious leaders have acted as if an attack on the clergy or the church is an attack on God.

It’s always been that way. Christians fret about the deteriorating morals of society. Unfortunately, many religions have lost their historic claim to moral authority. The scandal revealed in Spotlight is one massive example of the importance of holding leaders accountable in any organization that wants to have a moral voice.

5. Loyalty vs. Betrayal

In Spotlight we see efforts to encourage people to be loyal to the home team. Loyalty to Boston and the Catholic church is a virtue. Don’t destroy the works of good people because of a few “bad apples.” It’s interesting that the film focuses on numbers as if a quantifiable critical mass of bad priests is needed before one feels justified to “betray” the church.

Loyalty is indeed a virtue. But where one’s loyalty lies is important. Christians, and all moral people, are continually tested to determine whether their loyalty lies with their church/religion, pastor, political party, nuclear family, extended family, school, and so forth. At times, the ties that bind us to others must be broken. Spotlight shows what can happen when misplaced loyalty reinforces destructive church practices.

6. Purity vs. Degradation

The church has often portrayed sex as dirty and unclean. Shining the Spotlight on the filthy frocks in the church reveals dirt instead of the moral purity expected of its leaders. Sexual purity remains a focus of many Christian groups who periodically rail against premarital sex and pornography.

The film, Spotlight, evokes disgust. Disgust over sexuality provokes the desire to be clean. We find the behavior of the priests and the church disgusting. Disgust moves us to protection. Disgust can be a good thing. But we must protect those who have been hurt not an organization that perpetuates harm.

As long as churches are led by people, problems of uncontrolled sexual behavior will persist. The people who govern any organization ought always to be disgusted enough to “clean up” their organization. But churches must focus on those who have been hurt by the actions of their leaders. People who have been sexually abused often report feeling dirty. I once heard a woman say of the Christian leader who abused her, “I felt like trash-- a piece of paper that he wadded up and tossed in the trash.”

Read more about Sex and Christian morality, in  A House Divided

For related works, see my book list and reviews about Sex and Religion 

  

Resources

U.S. Child Abuse Hotline 

To learn more about the problem of child sexual abuse, see the Catholic Church report on the abuse of minors for the period 1950 to 2002. It is available from the USCCB.

Link to a 2002 Spotlight team report at the Boston Globe.

The story behind the movie, Spotlight at the Boston Globe.

Clergy Sexual abuse is not just a Catholic issue. Newsweek story 7 April 2010.

Read more about Sexuality, Morality, and Christian Cultures 

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Why I am not a Christian - Bertrand Russell - A book Review

 Why I Am Not A        

Christian

By

  Bertrand Russell

Reviewed by

  Geoffrey W. Sutton

 

I am still surprised by the memory of a professor at a highly conservative college who included Russell’s book, Why I am not a Christian as assigned reading in a Philosophy of Christianity class. I don’t recall what the professor said about the collection of essays so many years ago. However, it is a classic work and deserves at least a look by those like me interested in the psychology of religion and related fields like philosophy.

The lead essay answers the author’s question in the title. It was presented as a lecture at the Battersea Town Hall (London, England) in 1927. His logical thinking is evident early on as he attempts to define the concept, Christian. He considers a few options and concludes first, that a Christian must believe in God and immortality, and second, a Christian must at least think of Christ as the “best and wisest of men.” The essay proceeds to explain why he does not believe these two attributes are true.

In the section about the existence of God, Russell reviews the traditional arguments are not very convincing. The arguments and problems are well known to philosophy and theology students, so I won’t repeat them here. I am referring to arguments known as “First Cause,” “Natural Law,” “Argument from Design,” and the moral arguments.

His comments on Christ are different. He takes the words of Christ reported in the gospels quite literally. He notes some of the positive teachings of Jesus and notes the lack of following these teachings by Christians. In a different approach, Russell challenges some statements such as the immanent return of Christ which has not happened. A challenging section is his opinion that Christianity is a religion built on fear.

The rest of the book is a collection of essays on various topics related to Christianity or religion in general. These include his views on life after death, sexual ethics, and freedom.

**********

Nearly 100 years later, the arguments put forth by intelligent writers like Russell are familiar. Perhaps what made Russell’s work seem relevant to my philosophy professor was the fact that Russell focused on Christianity in a way that raises issues that an intelligent believer ought to either have satisfactory answers or give up their faith. However, in the years since I took that course, intelligent Christians have taken a different path to dealing with the problems of belief.

On the one hand, fundamentalists continue to uphold traditional beliefs to the point of denying scientific evidence or identifying one conundrum or another as a “mystery” that will be resolved someday—presumably in a literal heaven. Thus, the attacks of atheists seem to make sense only when challenging literal interpretations of old beliefs that seem implausible or lack adequate defenses (I am using adequate in these sense of logical arguments based on some sort of premises that all arguers can agree upon).

On the other hand, other Christians have de-emphasized belief statements, qua truth statements, in favor of experience and offered many metaphorical interpretations of religious claims that appear fantastic from the perspective of a contemporary understanding of human nature and the natural world. In this view, Christ’s calls to address injustice and pursue peace, kindness, and a moral life justify following Christ.

I chose the path of psychology rather than philosophy. This leads me to wonder if my old professor was dealing with doubts about his ultra conservative tradition, which would not permit him to express any personal doubts in front of students. Critical thinking in that context meant thinking critically about people outside the faith rather than about all subject matter.

FOR Related books on Atheism CLICK HERE

Reference

Russell, B. (1957). Why I am not a Christian and other essays on religion and related subjects. New York: Clarion.

 

Ethics in the Age of the Spirit- A book review

ETHICS IN THE AGE OF THE SPIRIT: 

RACE, WOMEN, WAR, 

AND THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD

     by Howard N. Kenyon. 

     Reviewed by 

        Geoffrey W. Sutton 

            

The topics of race, women, and war, in Kenyon’s subtitle, are certainly timely issues. In 2016, the son of a Black father and White mother neared the end of his two terms as the 44th U.S. president while a woman campaigned to replace him. Meanwhile, the U.S. was at war, as it has been for 222 years since 1776 (Charpentier, 2017). Drawing on archival data, Howard N. Kenyon examines Pentecostals’ ethical response to racism, sexism, and war in the context of their fundamentalist roots and the historic cultural changes that have occurred in the past one hundred years.

Howard N. Kenyon is a fourth-generation Pentecostal. He earned his Ph.D. in Ethics from Baylor University in 1988. Ethics in the Age of the Spirit is an updated version of his dissertation. He is currently Vice President of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. And he continues to express his concerns in presentations, essays, and blogs.

Kenyon’s inquiry begins with five context-setting chapters explaining the holiness roots and early revivals which led to the 1914 formation of the Pentecostal fellowship known as the Assemblies of God (AG). Although the roots of American Pentecostalism may be traced to the 1800s, most historians associate the beginning of the new religious movement with the exuberant prayer meetings of the early 1900s marked by reports of divine healing and glossolalia. In this review, I focus on Kenyon’s three ethical topics, consider how his data fit with moral foundations theory, and suggest psychosocial factors that behavioral science readers might find relevant.

RACE
Kenyon refers to the AG race relations policy as a reactionary ethic (chapters 6-11). Rather than offering ethical leadership, the AG was guided by the values of their dominant white evangelical kin. At the time of the spiritual revival in the early 1900s, Blacks and Whites worshipped together, but by the time of the organization of the AG in 1914, they were mostly white (see photo), and a contemporary denomination was mostly black (COGIC: Church of God in Christ). An example of early black-white thinking can be seen in a pithy 1933 photo caption: “Black faces–white hearts (p. 71)” One example of a reactionary ethic is the marked shift in credentialing of a black pastor, Robert Harrison (1928-2012). Initially, he was denied credentials upon graduating from an AG bible school; however, he received them in 1962 following his rise to international prominence within the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. It is noteworthy that the AG and COGIC met in powerful reconciliation meetings in the 1990s known as the Memphis Miracle (Underwood  AG,  COGIC )

WOMEN
Like the story of African Americans, women were also active participants in the seminal Pentecostal revival meetings (chapters 12-16). Several women were prominent evangelists within Pentecostal enclaves, and a few (e.g., Florence Crawford, Aimee Semple McPherson) achieved wider recognition. Unlike blacks, and unlike women in many other denominations, Pentecostal women were credentialed and served as evangelists and missionaries. However, numerous discussions led to various rules limiting acceptable pastoral duties. In discussing an early debate over women serving as elders, Kenyon noted, “the issue of distinction was clearly one of authority (153).” Kenyon refers to the ethical stance toward women as a dogmatic ethic. By this, he means that scripture, or more properly an interpretation of scripture, held sway. Today, women are visible leaders in the AG. See the AG position paper on the role of women in ministry for their current position (2010).

WAR
Finally, Kenyon examines the significant reversal of Pentecostals’ stance on participation in war (chapters 17-21). In the early years, the position of the American AG was decidedly pacifist. Some cited Jesus’ ethic of loving one’s neighbors and enemies. And some referred to the sixth commandment forbidding killing. Others argued that the proper focus of ministry is on reaching the lost with the gospel—there was a sense of urgency because they viewed the outpouring of God’s Spirit on believers and the horrific World War I as signs of Jesus imminent return. The pacifist position changed when America entered the war. The Espionage and Sedition Act of 1917 significantly dampened public pronouncements against war and encouraged the new movement to assure the government that they were loyal citizens and not a group of rebels. World War II delivered the knockout blow (my opinion) to any pacifist inclinations as the AG demonstrated pride in their young servicemen and gave considerable effort to support their spiritual needs. See the AG position paper on peacemaking (2015).

*****

Reading Ethics as a psychologist, I thought it was much like a case study illustrating the three binding dimensions (purity, authority, loyalty) of moral foundations theory explained by Jonathan Haidt in The Righteous Mind (2012), which is supported by recent research among Pentecostals and evangelicals (Sutton, Kelly, & Huver, 2019). Segregation, the aforementioned purity quote, prohibitions against interracial marriages, and antimiscegenation laws (overturned by SCOTUS in 1967) exemplify both racial (e.g., see Nacoste, 2018) and sexual purity concerns (e.g., see Sutton, 2016). 

The language of the struggle for women’s right to be fully engaged in pastoral work was aptly presented as a struggle over authority and reveals the tension between women’s recognized gifts of preaching versus the authority issues attributed to select Pauline texts. Finally, Kenyon’s explanation of the loyalty issue faced by AG pacifists, reveals the tension experienced by those who felt torn by loyalty to God versus loyalty to the government.

Readers familiar with behavioral science may also want to consider the power of psychosocial factors influencing the ethical considerations of Christian organizations. For example, it seems quite ironic that despite early ethical wrangling over supporting war, the two wars served as catalysts for the rights of African Americans and women based on their substantial contributions to the war effort at home and on the battlefield. Women got the right to vote and a slow but traceable path approaching equality. 

Under threat of protest organized by A. Philip Randolph, Roosevelt banned racial discrimination related to war production in 1941 (Gates, n.d.). Also, at about the time Rev. Harrison was dealing with discrimination, the U.S. Supreme court ruled against school segregation (1954) and in 1957 president Eisenhower ordered the National Guard to protect nine black students entering a white high school in Arkansas (history.com)—four decades after the AG was formed in the same state. Finally, reminiscent of their study of Appalachian Pentecostals (Hood, Hill, & Williamson, 2005), the theory of intratextual fundamentalism may also be applied to understand the dynamic at work when AG leaders employed biblical texts to support authority and loyalty concerns related to women and war issues.

*****

Ethics in the Age of the Spirit deserves a place in the libraries of Christian colleges and seminaries. It will surely be a valuable resource in courses on Christian ethics, especially for those in Pentecostal and Evangelical institutions. I think it also highlights the value of archival analysis to examine shifts in patterns of moral foundations.

Personal note and disclosure

I became friends with Howard Kenyon via social media connections and for a brief time, his father was the pastor of the church I attended in my early teen years. I learned about this book from a mutual friend, Marty Mittelstadt, who wrote the foreword. It is possible that I have been favorably biased in writing this review.

I have written an academic review, which has been accepted and I hope will be published in 2020 but that process is slower than posting on a blog. 

I cannot guarantee that the links in this blog will always work. I hope you have enough information to search if the information is still available.


A related book: A House Divided on AMAZON

References

Gates, H.L., Jr. (n.d.). What was black America’s double war? pbs.org. retrieved December 16, 2019 from https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/what-was-black-americas-double-war/

Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. New York: Pantheon.

Hood, R. W. Jr., Hill, P.C., & Williamson, W. P. (2005). The psychology of religious fundamentalism. New York: Guilford.

Sutton, G. W. (in press). [Review of the book Ethics in the age of the spirit: Race, women, war, and the Assemblies of God by H. N. Kenyon]. Journal of Psychology and Christianity. Accepted 20 December 2019.  ResearchGate         Academia

Sutton, G. W., Kelly, H. L., & Huver, M. E. (2019). Political Identities, Religious Identity, and the Pattern of Moral Foundations among Conservative Christians. Journal of Psychology and Theology (online first). https://doi.org/10.1177/0091647119878675 Prepublication version at ResearchGate   or Academia


Also relevant: Christian Morality on AMAZON and other sellers worldwide.

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Reading the Bible Again-Metaphors to Live By - by Marcus Borg

A Review of Marcus Borg’s 

Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: 

Taking the Bible Seriously but Not literally.

By

Geoffrey W. Sutton

 My earliest memory of a conflict between the Bible and the observable world happened sometime in late childhood when I learned that the moon was not a light as it plainly said in my King James Version of Genesis 1:16. It was downhill from there. Like many of my friends, we learned a near literal interpretation of the Bible from parents with a limited education and churches where teachers shared a blend of fundamentalism and evangelicalism. Their application of select biblical laws, commandments, and rules to contemporary life seemed strangely arbitrary and unnecessarily restrictive. I should like to think Marcus Borg’s, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, would have saved me considerable puzzlement—and likely some distress. I’ll say more later but first, a summary of Reading the Bible Again for the First Time.

*****

Borg establishes the conflict in the preface. Christians are faced with two very different ways of reading the sacred text, that is, The Holy Bible. Many of us learned the “literal-factual” way. Borg offers us a “historical-metaphorical” way. The two different ways of reading the text divide Christians not just in churches but in the public arena of American politics.

 Borg divides his highly readable volume into three parts. In Part One, he provides a foundation for reading the Bible in this new way. We learn a little history of the Bible, which of course was not read by ordinary folks until people learned to read and the text became widely available. A near literalism combined with church doctrines was taught for centuries with a focus on salvation from sin and living a moral life so, in the end, you had heaven to gain. Now Borg introduces readers to the alternative view that our sacred text reveals a variety of ways people understood God and their relationship to God., Borg closes Part One by explaining what he means by the “historical-metaphorical” way of reading the Bible. Readers need to understand the historical context to appreciate how ancient Hebrews expressed their faith, but we would be left with a rather dead text if we ignored the beauty of the metaphors in play from Genesis to Revelation. In Borg’s words: “Metaphor is linguistic art or verbal art” (Location 569).

 In Part Two we learn how the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament for Christians) comes alive when we don’t have to worry about the days or sequences of creation, which of 613 laws ought to be kept, or how to make sense of the horrible ways ancient people destroyed each other in the name of God. Here, I cannot do justice to Borg’s text in a typical review because he gives numerous examples of how contemporary readers can learn that the problems of yesteryear continue to trouble us today. Then, as now, ordinary people suffered from economic exploitation by taxes and the possession of land, political oppression by kings and emperors, and religious legitimization—a nation’s leaders dictate what God ordains. Along the way, we gain insights into how to read poetry and the wisdom literature such as is found in the proverbs. We also learn how prophets challenged kings. And we glimpse how people celebrated their relationship with God.

 If you are familiar with the Bible, you won’t be surprised to learn that Part Three is about the New Testament. In three chapters, Borg summarizes how the Gospels, letters of Paul, and The Revelation can also be read in their historical context along with an appreciation of the rich metaphors that can transcend 20 centuries. He reminds us that Jesus, his followers, and all, or almost all, the writers were Jewish men thus, we learn of the importance of understanding the problem of first century Jews under the sandal of the Roman Empire and the necessity of appreciating the influence of Jewish traditions on the stories of Jesus and the metaphors of the writers. Borg is not rigid as he interprets the text. I suppose some might believe if they had enough faith, they could walk on water, but the story as metaphor suggests more than one meaning. We might learn that people with spiritual sight learn to calm their inner fears or cope with the struggles of life. I should say, these interpretations are my own thoughts as a psychologist reading Borg’s discussion of God vs. the traditional theme of angry seas, which in the gospel story were calmed by Jesus.

Paul is a problematic author for many a modern Christian—especially American women who don’t find much support in doctrines of submission, silence, and guidance on what to wear (or not wear). As others have said, we can take the edge off Paul a bit if we realize some of the texts limiting women’s roles were likely not written by Paul. And, Paul wrote most of his letters as a reply to specific questions that arose in the various Christian communities he founded or supported during his travels. We gain a bit more insight into Paul’s theology when we unpack his recurring themes of freedom and transformation developed from his Damascus Road experience. The way of becoming a new person, like the way lived out by Jesus, is a path of dying to an old way and rising to embrace a new way. In his day and now, people like Paul may be transformed following an encounter with Jesus.

Fittingly, the Revelation is at the end of the Bible, at the end of Borg’s book, and for many, a mysterious End Times story. Long ago I learned that wall charts describing the end of life as we know it lacked credibility. I suppose those complex flow charts are in someone’s attic gathering dust. But I digress. Borg offers nonscholars a brief history of the difficulty of life under the Roman Empire of the first century—a time when those under Roman domination were to worship Caesar as god. Borg provides an orderly and masterful summary of Revelation along with guidance to help readers appreciate how the vivid images relate to Hebrew history and life under Roman rule. Borg’s interpretation is in sharp contrast to futuristic interpretations that continue to scare some contemporary Christian youth while comforting the elderly with the confidence that they are on the winning side in the massive end-of-world bloody war over evil.

 In the Epilogue, Borg reiterates his point about the Bible containing different voices and encourages us to see the ancient conflicts between kings and prophets—between elite leaders who use their positions to oppress and exploit ordinary people and the voices of those who speak against injustice. He also encourages readers to think of Christianity as being about more than a list of beliefs and practices. Christianity is about relationships—relating to God and others with passion and compassion.

*****

I suppose Reading the Bible Again is for any Christian who finds that the clergy and teachers in their faith tradition seem disconnected from their life experience in the way they preach, teach, or blog about living in our complex world. For different reasons, many of us discovered that near literal interpretations of the Bible don’t make sense. Each generation of Christian youth since the 1960s has different reasons for challenging simplistic applications or applications that seem cruel and contradictory if we are to believe God is a loving and caring being.

 In the 1960s, those raised in American holiness traditions discovered the arbitrariness of rules against dancing, mixed swimming, long hair on men, tattoos, make-up, movies, jewelry, women wearing pants instead of dresses, and many other quotable prohibitions from some part of God’s Word. Not surprisingly, some left Christianity behind. Others moved on to churches that were more concerned with doing good than trying to live according to rules made for ancient Israelite tribes or for the Jews and gentiles in early Christian communities.

I close this review with a reminder to consider the common metaphor when reading the Bible.

 A metaphor is a figure of speech in which the writer uses a word or phrase to state that a primary object of focus (e.g., person, idea, event, or activity) is something different in order to reveal an important characteristic or feature of the primary object.

Biblical examples: Jesus is a lamb, vine, bread. Peter is a rock.

***********

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***********

            Somewhere along the way to the 21st century, educated youth learned to appreciate the scientific explanations for the origin of amazing landscapes and the diversity of life on the planet. We learned so much about birth and death and we benefit from advances in medicine. Slowly, scientists offered more and more explanations relevant to daily life. And many of those scientists happened to be women. Perhaps making matters worse for those insisting on near literal interpretations of the Bible were advances in the behavioural sciences, which upended thinking about mental health, sexuality, and people who experienced hallucinations and delusions. Christians turned away from clergy to find answers to life problems in the offices of physicians, psychologists, and a host of other professionals who offered evidence-based treatments for infertility, contagious diseases, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and more.

            Moreover, in recent decades, a cacophony of evangelical voices seem at odds with one another over biblical perspectives on the role of women in the church and society, birth control, sex education, the nature of marriage, parenting, abortion, same-sex relationships, and the allocation of church and social resources to help the poor of one’s own nation as well as the world. Of recent concern has been the strident rhetoric used by politically active American Christians to condemn those who do not share their political views.

            I think there may be another value of this book to all those who work with Christians who find themselves distressed because of some application of the Bible to their life. They may feel guilty, angry with God, or conflicted over biblical teaching regarding some past or planned act. On the one hand, such people may find helpful guidance from their local clergy. On the other hand, they may consult a mental health professional hoping to find a different opinion. Caution is in order here because a person’s faith can be a significant part of personal identity. However, clinicians of any faith or no faith will likely find Borg’s work instructive for understanding Christians.

            Reading the Bible Again is for all those who wish there was another way to embrace the sacred text of their childhood without compromising the facts about the natural world, their intelligence, and respect for all people regardless of their natal sex. Borg doesn’t have all the answers, but he does offer an alternative way of respecting the Bible again and, more importantly, reconnecting with the God who has inspired people for thousands of years to champion the causes of the downtrodden, sick, poor, and social outcasts.

*****

            Borg stated there are only two ways to read the texts. And I think he’s right. The near literalist view continues to dominate conservative evangelical churches and the postings of their adherents on social media sites. Those educated evangelicals who try to mix some literalism with some metaphors end up with an unsatisfactory concoction, which can only lead to intelligent young people throwing up their metaphorical hands and walking away.

            The time has come to follow Jesus’ lead. Like his rule about the Sabbath Day, old rules were meant for an ancient society, the Sabbath was made for man. If you try to put new wine into old wine skins, they will burst. Being free in Christ means finding out what it means to love God by loving others in one’s sphere of life. Christians live out Paul’s theme of dying to oneself and rising again when engaged in life-enhancing pursuits for the wellbeing of those around us.

            As Borg’s subtitle reads, Christians can “take the Bible seriously but not literally.”
-----------------------------------------
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Book Reference

Borg, M.J. (2001). Reading the bible again for the first time: taking the bible seriously but not literally (ePub ed.). New York: HarperCollins.

Reading the Bible Again is available on Google and Amazon

DOWNLOAD A PDF VERSION OF THIS REVIEW: Academia  

Cite this Review (APA style)

Sutton, G. W. (2019). Reading the Bible Again-Metaphors to live by. Sutton Reviews. Retrieved from https://suttonreviews.suttong.com/2019/07/metaphors-to-live-by-reading-bible-again.html

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Marcus J Borg Bio

Marcus J. Borg (1942-2015) was an American theologian from Fergus Falls, Minnesota whose research focused on the historical Jesus. He was educated at the University of Oxford, Concordia College, Union Theological Seminary, and Mansfield College. He was associated with the Anglican communion and was a professor at Oregon State University until his retirement in 2007.

Author Bio

Geoffrey W. Sutton is a psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Psychology whose research focused on various topics in the psychology of religion. He earned his PhD in psychology from the University of Missouri. See below to find books and other publications.

 Related Posts

Meeting Jesus Again (Borg, 1995)

Speaking Christian (Borg, 2014)

 Progressive Christianity - Book summaries and reviews

 

Moral Teaching of Paul --A Book Review

THE MORAL TEACHING 

OF PAUL

SELECTED ISSUES

3RD EDITION

     BY

VICTOR PAUL FURNISH

Reviewed by

Geoffrey W. Sutton


The Moral Teaching of Paul is one of the books I cited in A House Divided. This third edition comes some 30 years after the first edition and aims to expand our understanding of the sociocultural context of Paul's Ministry related to contemporary moral issues.

Before discussing the moral topics, Furnish reminds readers in Chapter 1 about Paul's authorship, which at this point appears firm for Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. Disputed works include Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy. The disputed works have been variously dated in a range from the 70s to the early second century. The importance of identifying Paul's works is a matter of emphasis thus, Furnish focuses attention on the undisputed texts to understand Paul's moral theology.

Furnish advises readers of the problem with a Sacred Cow view of the biblical texts. Such a view leaves readers bound to Paul's words because they are really the words of God given to all people for all time. Furnish argues that the biblical authors addressed situations in their sociohistorical context. Furnish realizes he must deal with those who quote 2 Timothy 3: 16-17. He makes the point, as others have, that the verse about inspired scripture probably referred to the Jewish texts since there was no New Testament at the time Paul wrote. The other point rests on an understanding of the concept, inspiration. As is commonly known, some view inspiration as the very words of God but others interpret the term in various ways (see Chapter 1 for more details).

Following the groundwork in Chapter 1, Furnish begins to address the moral topics that capture our attention. Chapter 2 deals with Sex, Marriage, and Divorce. There is no surprise to see Paul's view of sex as limited to the marriage relationship. Furnish offers background points about marriage during the Roman period. The purpose of marriage was to establish a household where children could be raised and elderly parents receive care. Approved marriages were important to the transfer of property to future generations. Girls married in the age range of 12 to 15 and men married by age 25. Furnish notes Paul's reason for marriage as "good" to meet sexual needs. Paul avoids the reason others have given of marrying to procreate (Gen 1:28).

Divorce was easy to obtain during Roman times, according to Furnish. Adultery was the usual cause of a divorce. Furnish notes Jesus' restrictive stance on divorce and guides readers into a consideration of other reasons beyond infidelity by considering circumstances as does Paul in some of his reasoning.

Chapter 3 is titled, "Homosexuality?" Furnish makes the point early on that there were no ancient words for homosexuality in the biblical languages. Furnish departs from a discussion of Paul's works to provide context from the Jewish laws about same-sex sex. He then proceeds to a discussion of Jewish and Roman cultures in the first century. For Jews, same-sex sex was unnatural and unlawful. He refers to Greek culture and the presence of same-sex relationships. Some practices by people of the time involving sex with boys were condemned by other writers and Furnish thinks these condemned practices may be what Paul had in mind. He offers quotes from ancient extrabiblical texts to make his point about the condemnation of exploitation. Furnish closes the chapter by addressing current concerns about same-sex unions. He reminds readers of the limits of what the biblical texts say and do not say when it comes to contemporary notions of sexual orientation and relationships.

Ad. See related chapters in A House Divided

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In Chapter 4, Furnish addresses Paul's view of "Women in the Church." As in previous chapters, Furnish provides the sociohistorical context applicable to the texts that appear to limit the role of women in ministry. He includes quotes depicting the inferiority of a woman's human nature e.g., seeing women as easily deceived and having poor reasoning powers. Next, Furnish examines the sometimes confusing array of teachings from Paul's letters. On the one hand, there are texts restricting what women can do but on the other hand, there are texts documenting the important role of women in early church ministries--including Paul's work.

The final chapter (5) addresses the moral challenge of "The Church in the World." We see that Paul expects Christians to live as citizens, which suggests an active role in social life. We also see guidance on how to behave; that is, Paul refers to such virtues as love, gentleness, kindness, and so on. Furnish makes a point that Christians are called to honorable conduct without connecting good works to the conversion of unbelievers to Christianity.

Furnish's analysis of Paul's teachings in the context of Jewish and Roman cultures provides a useful backdrop to consider contemporary interpretations of several hot-button issues that continue to divide contemporary Christians. Thus, Furnish's book remains relevant as Christians sincerely seek to appreciate what the Apostle Paul wrote, the traditions of the church, and how one ought to think about contemporary moral issues. The book will likely not be helpful to those who adhere to an interpretation of Pauline texts that does not permit a nuanced view based on cultural contexts and understanding old words and phrases in the ancient languages of scripture. The Moral Teaching of Paul will likely be useful for those in a variety of Christian ministries and students in Christian colleges and seminaries.

Ad. For a related book on Christian Morality, See Christian Morality on AMAZON and at other booksellers.

Sex and Christianity topics: Women in the church, marriage, adultery, divorce, same-sex acts

Religious perspective: Progressive Christian, moral theology

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References

Furnish, V. P. (2009). The Moral Teaching of Paul: Selected Issues, 3rd Ed. Nashville: Abingdon.

Sutton, G. W. (2016). A House Divided: Sexuality, Morality, and Christian Cultures. Eugene, OR: Pickwick.