This morning as I cleaned my desk—post-vacation procrastination as I desperately tried to prolong the last remnants of two weeks of complete irresponsibility—I came across one of your Herald articles that I had cut out for future reference.
“The birds and the bees have escaped” [Herald, April 30] is a wonderfully written and insightful article. I suspect that neither truly committed liberals nor conservatives were happy with it, but you raised what I think are the most important questions: What does the Bible, in all its messiness, have to say to us in the 21st century and how do we interpret it for a new millennium?
Having grown up in a fundamentalist family, becoming a scientist and engineer was an uncomfortable process—the earth isn’t supported on four pillars, there is no storehouse of rain and God did not create the earth by wrestling Rahab, the goddess of chaos, into submission (Job 26:12).
We are people of the Book, but we need to be reminded that we can’t wrestle it into submission. Instead, we need to humbly and prayerfully struggle with all of it as we confront the cultural issues of our day. And we need to admit, at least to ourselves, the biases we bring to Bible study. Then, just maybe, we can have a truly Christian discussion, and we might even be able admit that others have the right to disagree with us and to prayerfully follow a different path.
When I come up with all of the answers I’ll be sure to let you know. I trust that you will do the same in your articles.
John Budde, Alexandria, Va.