Inspired Bible Reading
Starting Monday, April 24, Pr. Gene Talley will be offering a 4-week Bible class called Inspired Bible Reading. This course is closely tied to our new conversations about the possibility of becoming a Reconciling In Christ (RIC) congregation. Classes will start at 7 p.m. and run for about an hour on April 24, May 1, May 8, and May 15.
Inspired Bible Reading will focus on the most common “clobber” passages which have been used against LGBTQ+ people and their full inclusion in the church. In keeping with our Lutheran tradition, biblical texts will be dealt with as they appear in our English translations of the Bible, translational issues will be considered, and contextual clues from the time they were originally written will be shared. Time permitting, we will also consider positive examples of inclusion for sexual minorities and others in the Bible.
Why “Inspired”? Section 2.03 of the constitution for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) states: “This church accepts the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life.” Many churches today, including most other Lutheran church bodies, use the term inerrant instead of the word inspired to describe their canonical scriptures – their Bible. What’s the difference? Inerrant means without error, indicating that their Bible is exactly, literally true in what it says (in whatever English translation they use, often the King James Version which is famously filled with translational errors). Inspired means the original authors were inspired by God to write what they did. We believe their witness is still authoritative for our proclamation, faith, and life, despite errors having been introduced into the biblical texts and various stages throughout the centuries.
Inspired Bible reading is reading the Bible in a way that looks for – and expects – God to speak through the text, while recognizing the reality that there is a wealth of textual, translational, and contextual information available to help us better understand both the original intent of a passage, and possible meanings for us today. By the end of this class, hopefully all of us will be doing more inspired Bible reading.