Unbiblical Thoughts

I've kept my Lent vows for the past week, of reading five verses every day. So far I'm reading Psalms. Some time ago I started at Genesis, and on various occasions have read through enough to get to Psalms. At this rate I'll reach the New Testament sometime in the next decade.

I'm not sure what effect I expected this would have on me. So far, it's mostly confirming me in my commitment to Unitarianism, because if I had to believe every single word of the Bible was the literal divine truth of God's interactions with human beings, I'd wind up at the state of mind aptly summed up as "I absolutely believe in God, and I absolutely hate the bastard".

Mine is the Newcomer's Good News edition of the Bible, which is an excellent Bible version to own if you're reading it for the first time. Simple and clear English, with illustrations, footnotes, and helpful summaries of Biblical history at the front and end. I'm happy to own it, but alas, every time I come across a note at the start (which I have no doubt the author sincerely believed when they wrote it, and probably still does) which mentions how the chapter in question highlights God's constant love for his people, or the unchanging truth about human nature, the little sceptical voice that drove me out of my previous churchgoing pipes up with "Only if you have a very bleak view of human nature".

I can't fault the author's of my Bible's edition for their commitment to their beliefs, but after concerted reading of the Old Testament, you begin to wonder what an edition of the Bible would look like if annotated according to modern sensibilities. It could begin with a list at the start of each chapter:
"No. of times God orders the Israelites to slaughter an entire people, down to their children and animals = 2"
"No. of times a man kills another man who raped his sister over the insult to his family's honour = 1" "No. of times women are described as prostitutes = 3".
"This chapter should be noted for the exceptionally bloody bride price King David paid for his first wife, Saul's daughter." (200 foreskins, freshly hacked from the corpses of dead Phoenician soldiers. David was the one who made them dead.)
And so forth.

And yet, the Old Testament contains the tale of Ruth, and the love between two women. It contains the Song of Songs, some of the best erotic poetry ever written. (My edition, rather sweetly, notes that this can be considered as a metaphor for the love between God and his people. I cannot be the only person down the ages who has thought "....really?") It contains the book of Ecclesiastes, the author of whom would be on my "list of people to invite to a drinking party".

Religion really isn't easy or straightforward. It's not comfortable, either.

God or No God Alley

When my church discussed how we could promote ourselves to others, one popular idea was to have a stall at the Newcastle Community Green Festival, where we might encounter like-minded individuals who would be interested in hearing about our message of religious and spiritual liberty, and cake.

Now in its 19^th year, the Newcastle Community Green Festival happens each June in Leazes Park in Newcastle upon Tyne, and exists to “spread a message of environmental protection and social justice”. Last weekend, along with many others, we rolled up at Leazes Park beneath an ominous sky, and set out our stall of posters, leaflets, free cake, badges, and Unitarians happy to talk about our faith.

Three hours later, the heavens opened, and from then the Saturday became something of a mud bath. Nevertheless, we were having a great time. Based in the big blue Information Tent, we encountered many people, from the genuinely curious, to those who had dashed in to avoid the weather, to people who were happy to stop, pick up a free badge and some cake, and have a chat about Unitarianism into the bargain. The most commonly asked questions were “What’s Unitarianism? I’ve never heard of it” and “What are your core beliefs?” Most people were open-minded and happy to hear about it, even if one or two decided it wasn’t for them.

As if to make up for the preceding day, Sunday was warm and sunny, although the ground was reaching Glastonbury Festival levels of mud. Everyone in the tent helped put straw down to make the conditions underfoot a bit easier. Meeting the other stall volunteers was a very enjoyable part of the festival.

We encountered people ranging from Sea Shepherd to the North East Humanists and the Green Party, several of whom expressed an interest in Unitarianism, or at least in hiring the church’s rooms. The Humanists had their stall opposite ours; we could only wonder if someone with a sense of humour allocates the stalls (at one point we were referring to our part of the Information Tent as “God or No God Alley”).

I also took the chance to wander around, catch up with several of the Newcastle crowd, and watch a few bands. Fun and pizza was had by all.

Intermission

This blog took a break last week, as I stuck my work-related woes on the shelf, took some leaflets and a banner down from the shelf, and went off to run a stall at the Newcastle Green Festival. Write up coming soon. Here's a picture!

Gifts in the Bible

This is an excerpt from a recent piece I wrote for the church Christmas service, "Gifts in the Bible".

...one more story, because it seems I cannot write anything without throwing in a reference to scuba diving somehow. A while back, I read the story “Menfish”, by Jacques Cousteau, which is the account of the first ever scuba dive in what was then occupied France. As Cousteau puts it, when the first ever working aqualung system arrived in the village where he was living, “no child on Christmas morning ever unwrapped a parcel with more anticipation”. With his wife and best friend as support, Cousteau tested the equipment and made the first scuba dive in history. I remember reading that story, and suddenly realising that I was reading part of my own history. Had Cousteau not made that dive, my own life would be very different. What happened in 1940 affected my life 70 years later.

This week, I read the Bible again, especially the Acts of the Apostles and the letters to the Corinthians, which I think may have perhaps the highest concentration of the words “gift” and “giving” in the entire book. The church being established in those books, however imperfectly, was one in which people would love each other, treat each other as equals, and support each other whenever it was needed. At one point, Paul writes to his followers saying “Since you have plenty at this time, it is only fair that you should help those who are in need. Then, when you are in need and they have plenty, they will help you”. I read that passage, thought about the history of Christianity and my own journey in which I arrived at the Unitarian church here in Newcastle, and felt the same sensation: that the actions of people living long before I was born had led, in one way or another, in my receiving a great gift.

(As a sidenote, I have often thought that when you go looking for something in the Bible, you’ll usually find it, but it won’t necessarily be what you expected. Perhaps that says more about the person doing the looking than it does about the Bible.)