Please, anything but that!

More than a few days ago now I was (in not so many words) called a name that is still ringing in my ears. I've thought it over, and I can't imagine being called anything more insulting--or more shocking, for that matter! It was not malicious, but it was defensive on the part of the name-caller who obviously didn't know me very well. What on earth was this terrible name?

Biblical literalist.

I continue to hope that I did not actually look as horrified as I was in that moment when I nearly fell out of my chair, but I can't really be sure how much of that showed on my face.

In a conversation that had gotten far off topic, the issue of giving to the church was being discussed. A life-long church goer insisted that his Bible didn't tell him to give anymore than he was currently giving. I told him (gently, of course) to take another look at his Bible. I reminded him of stories like "The Rich Ruler" and "The Widow's Offering," then I suggested that we could look at these together. That's when he responded, "No because we'll just argue about interpretation. I don't understand the Bible literally the way you do..." He continued, but I was in too much shock to really catch the rest of his words.

My feeling insulted at being called a "biblical literalist" is problematic. It brought new awareness to a deep us/them divide in my mind. It called attention to my assumptions that the biblical literalists are over there, far away from me and those who think like me over here. What's in some ways worse still is that, on this matter, the man was correct. I do not think that Jesus' stories about giving are metaphorical; I believe that faithful followers of Christ are literally expected to sell everything that they own and give the proceeds to the poor. I believe we (if you're like me and have not yet done this) would understand a lot more about scripture, the nature of Christ, and love if we got some distance from our consumerism. I think we would surely learn something about accepting people and overlooking faults and problems if we had such serious problems of our own as finding a safe place to sleep and enough food and clean water to survive. I think we would better understand personal sacrifice, and perhaps we would be in position to glimpse the love that prompted divine sacrifice.

My own consumerism is troubling me more and more these days as I keep turning over in my mind the passages of scripture where I am a biblical literalist. So I continue to ponder what it means to be grouped with those people, those literalists. If "they" are consistent with their literal interpretations, then we have more in common than I thought. Perhaps I need to seek out a literalist or two and find out what else we agree upon...