Barney Wiget's Blog, page 10

The Redacted Bible, aka “The Slaver’s Bible”

[Less than 5-minutes of your time.]

Let’s admit it, most of us overlook a lot of difficult passages in the Bible if not downright avoid them. But did you know that in the 19th century some actually printed a redacted Bible in order to control African slaves?

This “abridged” version of the King James Bible is on display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.. Anthony Schmidt, associate curator of Bible and Religion in America at the museum, says “About 90 percent of the Old Testament is missing [and] 50 percent of the New Testament. Put another way, there are 1,189 chapters in a standard protestant Bible. This Bible contains only 232.” They left out almost 80% of the Word of God from the Word of God! Talk about a Readers Digest version of the Bible! Take a minute and let that sink in. Eight out of ten passages gone, at least for enslaved humans!

They didn’t use scissors or “white out” (pun intended), the chapters they deemed dangerous for slaves to hear! It was actually printed on a press with just those 232 chapters. In other words, a lot of work went into the project to keep slaves under their evil boot. And by the way, this wasn’t just used by godless slavers, but by British missionaries who came to America to “convert and educate (code for dominate) slaves.” They didn’t want anything left that might inspire them to rebel. You heard that, right? In their preaching, so-called “missionaries” possessed and propagated a redacted gospel!

What kinds of things did they redact and what was left in this “Slaver’s Bible”? Of course, they were keen to leave in any passages that could be misinterpreted to reinforce the institution of slavery, such as: “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.” (Ephesians 6:5) Equally keen were they to remove the entire Exodus story which could be fodder for slaves to hope for a day when they would be emancipated. Not to mention anything that could have prompted rebellion had to go, like: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

If this doesn’t prove our tendency to, what I call “lawyer down” the Bible according to our own personal preference, I don’t know what does. None of us totally read the Bible in a vacuum. We’re shaped by our social context more than we realize and maybe much more than we are shaped by the Word of God. Our desire for economic prosperity, social standing, or political power often come before our actual hunger to know truth.

Lord, have mercy! And help us read, believe, and act on “the whole will of God” (Acts 20:27), even those many parts that make us uncomfortable.

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.” (Revelation 22:18-19)

Forgive or Not to Forgive…

We cannot go back and undo the damage of yesterday, but we can undo the damage it is causing today. We do that with the act of forgiveness. (Steve Arterburn)

So, forgiving small things is easy—like when the neighbor didn’t pick up after their dog and I stepped in it. Or like the time a barber used the wrong number clipper on me and made me look like a Marine. I can release flyspeck hurts with one swing of the forgiveness swatter. But it’s the elephant-size offenses that require a more insistent and painstaking approach.

Martin Luther King Jr.said, “He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”

[An excerpt from my book: The Other End of the Dark in both paperback and eBook format.]

Have You Heard This Song?

We’ve finally put away the last vestige of our Christmas decorations and sang our final traditional carols for another year. If you think about the lyrics of your seasonal favorites, how do they compare to what is known as the Arab world’s favorite carol, called “On Christmas Night” written during the civil war in Lebanon in the 1980s?

Chorus:
On Christmas night, hatred vanishes
On Christmas night, the earth blooms
On Christmas night, war is buried
On Christmas night, love is born

Verse 1:
When we offer a glass of water to a thirsty person, we are in Christmas
When we clothe a naked person with a gown of love, we are in Christmas
When we wipe the tears from weeping eyes, we are in Christmas
When we cushion a hopeless heart with love, we are in Christmas

Verse 2:
When I kiss a friend without hypocrisy, I am in Christmas
When the spirit of revenge dies in me, I am in Christmas
When hardness is gone from my heart, I am in Christmas
When my soul melts in the being of God, I am in Christmas

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You probably noticed a distinct lack of any mention of sleigh bells, presents, reindeer, or even mangers, stars, or shepherds. This carol stands unique as it weighs heavily on how one chooses to live in light of the Light of the world coming into the world and into our hearts and heads.

Hatred vanishes, earth blooms, war is buried, and love is born! Those who embrace the Jesus who arrived in the womb of poor teenager and was delivered in a stable surrounded by farm animals, are the kind of people who care enough to offer a glass of water to the thirsty and wipe the tears of the weeping. They eschew hypocrisy and revenge, and their hearts are free of hardness toward those who are different from them.

Don’t we have a lot to learn from Christians who happen to be Arab (or Asian or African or …)?

On Christmas night, hatred vanishes
On Christmas night, the earth blooms
On Christmas night, war is buried
On Christmas night, love is born

Did any of that happen during Christmas last month or since in your heart? Were you (are you) “in Christmas” still?

“A Knock at Midnight”

Celebrate MLK Day with some of my favorite excerpts from his landmark sermon called “A Knock at Midnight”:

“Now this numerical growth of the Church is not to be over-emphasized. We must not succumb to the temptation of confusing spiritual power with big numbers. Jumboism, as someone has called it, is an utterly fallacious standard in measuring positive power. An increase in quantity does not necessarily represent an increase in quality. A bigger membership does not necessarily represent a bigger commitment to Christ. It has almost always been the creative, dedicated minority that has made the world better.”

“Death is not a period which ends this great sentence of life, but a comma that punctuates it to more loftier significance.”

“If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace, economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to know that it is an institution whose will is atrophied. But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status-quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will proceed to speak and act fearlessly and insistently on the questions of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of mankind. It will fire the souls of men and imbue them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice and peace. Men far and near will then see the church as that great fellowship of love which provides light and bread for lonely travellers at midnight.”

“How often has the church left men standing in the frustrating midnight of economic deprivation. In so many instances it has so aligned itself with the privileged classes and defended the status quo that it found it impossible to answer the knock at midnight.”

“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”

Some Final Thoughts on Thinking

Concluding Thoughts on Critical Thinking For Christians

The Best Lens Thru’ Which to View the World

Critical Thinking Christians Think Through Scripture

Where Shalom is Needed Most

Shalom is tested best on society’s margins and is exposed by how the disempowered are treated. When you find an enormous discrepancy between the opportunities for the rich and the poor or the white and the black or men and women, shalom is AWOL.

Systemic injustice is what someone called “violence in slow motion.” Jesus’ new society challenges the unjust structure, lifts up the oppressed, quells the violence, and restores shalom.

[An excerpt from: WHAT ON EARTH? Considering the Social Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount by Barney Wiget]

A Critical Component to Critical Thinking!

Critical Thinking Christians Think For Themselves

More Stuff on Critical Thinking – Labelling

Critical Thinking Christians Aren’t So Quick to Slap Labels on People

Critical Thinking (Part 2)

Critical Thinking Christians Don’t Rush to Judgment