CHARLIE DEAN'SBLOG

Full announcement here.

Sunday, after my teaching, someone approached me to talk about what I had just taught. He was visibly upset – which is really quite okay with me – I’m all for good, healthy – even vigorous – discussion. But, this is where the conversation turned from a friendly disagreement to a conversation that got under my skin:

In the course of our discussion, he said this about his position: “I’m a Biblicist.” Meaning, his position takes the Bible seriously and is defined by Scripture alone. The unsaid insinuation, is that my position is not Biblical, and that I just interpret it to mean what I want it to say. He might as well have said, “you don’t respect the Bible.”

Of course, we all read and interpret the Bible according to our tradition, experience, personality and education. And really, when it comes to theological matters, we generally do believe that our position is more faithful to the text than the other options – that’s why we believe the way we do. But if feels insulting to me when some traditions have a particularly bad habit of proclaiming themselves the only unbiased, infallible interpreters of Scripture. (This is one of my biggest pet peeves!)

Can we have just a small dose of humility, please?

Ever feel like you need a little inspiration?  A little motivation?  Here are two things that inspire me.  One, is a song that Dave posted earlier today on his Facebook profile. The music is fine, but I really love the spoken words by Nick Hornby, particularly the line about choosing to watch TV tonight:

The other, is a slam poetry performance by Anis Mojgani. I think I may have shared this on my Facebook feed a long time ago, but I’m going to post it again anyway.  I’m reading his book of poetry, Over the Anvil we Stretch, and lot of it goes over my head, but I’m trying to read more poetry, so I keep going.  I have a line from this poem on my facebook profile page because I find it beautiful and challenging and true – all marks of good peotry, huh?    Warning: his poetry can be a bit “raw” at times.  Enjoy.

(here’s another one from Mojgani that I love)