Kassiquan

THEOLOGICAL CRISIS

 

A few weeks ago, I received a message from one of the members in our youth group of days gone by asking to comment on concerns raised while viewing a few Biblical documentaries.  One of the concerns was the challenge one faces in reading the Bible, distinguishing translations and interpretations from the original manual scripts; primarily the definition of words from one language to another based on one’s interpretation.  Before responding to this member’s concern, who I will refer to as CD, I had to re-read CD’s message.  CD started out by writing that he was having a “theological crisis.”  I had to laugh.  I am sure many of us in our own walk of faith are not immune to facing a “theological crisis” every now and then.  Not that we question God and who God is, but it is the challenges we face in our own faith; what we have come to believe and how living in our world causes us to reexamine our own beliefs.  How do our own struggles about God, religion, and faith, especially when living in today’s society with so many values, morals, believes and injustices causing more violence against one another compare to what the Bible really says and teaches?  Thus, the “theological crisis.”

 

When CD sent me his message, I was happy to begin my reply, “In the past, we discussed God, religion and faith in youth groups, camp retreats, youth events like Power for the Journey, and in sermons given by Rev. (the late Reverend William H. Gage, I miss him, still).  CD, I do not ever recall just the two of us sitting down ourselves and having a conversation, a one on one about our own faith and challenges; you just opened that door for us to do so.”  CD knew of my faith’s journey and he was about to hear more.  I emailed CD a long response to his concerns but, I will only highlight some of what I shared with him in my own walk of faith; my own “theological crisis.”

 

I am not a “well-known” theologian.  I am not an expert or a well-learned Biblical scholar.  However, I am one who studies and continues to study the Bible.  As a teenager, I was going through a “theological crisis.”  I did not own a Bible but I knew about God, Creation, the Flood, the Exodus, David, Esther and the Salvation story from going to Sunday school as a small child.  As small child, I became a believer, saved if you will.  However, I did not have a Bible until I went to high school.  I started to read the Bible from beginning to end and that is when I had my first “theological crisis,” there was so much more to learn and understand.  I enrolled at Bible College, Philadelphia College of Bible to learn how to study the Bible for myself and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Science of the Bible.  I also earned a Bachelor’s in Social Work, which was of great help to me in reading the Bible in a completely new way; it actually came alive.  A respected professor, Miss. Mae Stewart taught Philosophy and Ethics at Philadelphia College of Bible stated, “The Bible is all true but not all truth.”  I did not do well in her classes but this statement stuck with me.  Miss Stewart also wrote in one of my assignments (I did not write well then either), “I can tell you are a social worker,” and gave me a 100%.

 

CD shared that he was watching some documentaries on the Bible.  Hmm, my cousin was watching YouTube on Biblical issues, too.  We actually discussed translations, original languages and meanings behind them that told when we could know when the end of the world would be by reading, “In the beginning” in the original Hebrew.  I told my cousin I would need to see what he was watching; sounded strange to me and wondered if my cousin was actually starting to believe he was sharing with me.  Unlike my cousin, CD actually raised concerns which told me he did not accept what he heard right away.  Below is portions of the email I sent to CD and those concerns, which I tackled in my own “theological crisis.”

 

1.      What were the documentaries you were reading and watching on the Bible?  I would want to read/watch so I am aware of what you read/saw.  I caution you, like Paul (Saul of Tarsus) cautioned Timothy, “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia – remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith” (1 Timothy 1 3-5).  Paul also encouraged Timothy to stay faithful to Scripture and its teachings just as he learned from Paul. (2 Timothy 3:10-17).

 

2.      There are quite a few controversial issues; nothing that is black and white.  Firstly, the Bible does not contradict itself; misinterpreted, misunderstood and twisted to fit one’s own justification, yes. Secondly, the Bible is literal; it is a compilation of stories, history, poetry, and prophecy.  The Bible is indeed one that is, “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  When Paul wrote this to Timothy, who learned all this from his youth through his mother and grandmother he was referring to the Old Testament.  The New Testament was not available at that time.  The New Testament is an account of the Life of Jesus on earth, the birth of the Church, its growth from Israel to Asia through Paul’s ministry, and letters written by Paul and others to believers.  Revelation is the last book and it was written by John who could only write what he saw and described images in his own words not knowing what they really were in the future; today’s images.  As a Social Worker, I have been reading the Bible from a human, realistic perspective seeing God’s interaction with people, imperfect people with a passion to bring people back to him ever since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  I do not read the Bible from a “theologian’s or “well scholarly” individual’s eyes.  Some people might see me as a heretic because I do not put the Bible on a pedestal or see it as a “sacred” book; but a life-giving book, which contains so much more for us to learn.

 

3.      Here are a few of my favorite Bible passages that I value and have read with Social Work eyes.

 

a.      Micah 6:8          “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God,” which is a reflection of the ten commandments.

b.      Genesis 3:6-7    “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that I was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took its fruit and ate.  She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”  I use this verse when we talk about domestic violence and accountability.  The “fundamental church” will blame the woman for man’s fall in the garden but, ADAM WAS ACCOUNTABLE.  Adam knew the commandment because he received directly from God.  Adam must have told Eve about the commandment but Satan twisted the words and Eve believed.  Eve ate the fruit but she was not alone because ADAM WAS RIGHT THERE.  He should have stopped her but, he listened to her and both suffered the consequences.  Adam even put the blame on Eve and did not taking responsibility for his own actions.

c.      John 4:5-9         Cultural discrimination, Jesus broke barriers.  First, men did not speak to women publically in those days.  Second, Jews hated the Samaritans, they were a mixed race, not pure Jewish.  Thus the parable in Luke 10:25-37 when a lawyer asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor” “The Good Samaritan)?

d.      Mark 1: 40-45    Marginalized, Jesus actually touches a leper who came to him kneeling, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”  Touching a leper was unheard of according to Jewish law (Leviticus 13:1-23 compare 15:1-33).  Reading the passage in Leviticus 13 states that lepers were not to be isolated, except when the disease seemed to be spreading.  However, those with leprosy were indeed isolated and not touched.

 

When I was in seminary taking a course in Clinical Pastoral Care, I worked as the Chaplain’s Intern at Episcopal Hospital assigned to the HIV/ AIDs ward.  Luis was a patient assigned to me.  I met Luis and his mother on my first visit to his room.  I had to wear a mask to protect myself because Luis also had tuberculosis and pneumonia.  Luis had AIDS but in denial called it a blood disease.  Luis asked why I was wearing a mask and I told him to keep him safe from catching my germs, which he accepted my answer.  After a week or so, Luis felt comfortable with my coming to see him every day at the same time.  Luis would motion for me to sit next to him on his bed and reach out his hand for me to take in his as I sat there with him.  I would read the Psalms to him and sometimes he would request that I read to him from the Bible.  I learned about Luis’s faith and belief that God would heal him.

 

One day the Chaplain at the hospital, (my supervisor) told me a psychiatrist was going to talk to Luis because he was not eating.  That day, as I sat with Luis with his hand in mine, the psychiatrist standing at the door shouted to Luis that he had some questions he wanted to ask.  Luis turned to me and asking why he was standing at the door shouting and not coming in.  The psychiatrist turned to me asking what Luis said.  I told the psychiatrist that Luis asked that you come in so you could hear him.  The psychiatrist turned and walked away.  I was angry and told my supervisor about the experience questioning why a hospital psychiatrist was afraid to go near an AIDS patient.  During my last week at the hospital finishing my Clinical Pastoral Care course, Luis died.  The day before Luis died; they moved him to another room with a roommate.  As I entered the room, a nurse was there force-feeding Luis from a large syringe with a tube going into his mouth and down is esophagus.  I watched Luis as he stared my way, struggling to breathe.  I went to touch Luis’s hand, it was cold, and his body cool.  His roommate whispered over to me saying that Luis’s mother would be taking Luis home the next day.  I turned to the roommate and said, “I don’t think so.  She will not be taking Luis home.”  The Chaplain was not in his office so I called him and told him of my assessment of Luis and that I would be going to the hospital earlier than my expected shift.  The next day as I waited for the elevator, Luis’s mother stepped out crying and when she saw me wrapped her arms around me and cried, “My son is gone.”  The man with her approached me taking my hand said, “You were a better father to Luis than I was.”

 

Luis’s family asked for assistance and, as my final task as a Chaplain’s Intern, I contacted the hospital social work department to staff provide resources to the family.  I was informed, “Luis was the client and now it is the family’s responsibility,” and was reprimanded for contacting them.  I was shocked, then angry.  I switched hats, and put on my social work hat and assisted the family myself.  Later, I went to the Chaplain’s office and he asked how I was.  I cried in his arms.  No one went to visit Luis, his mother I saw only once and Luis called me, “my brother” in one of my visits.  The Chaplain apologized for the reprimand; it is the hospital’s policy with which he does not agree and asked what I did afterwards.  I told him I became a social worker right there and gave the family resources.  “I would have done the same thing.”  I will never forget Luis.  This experience was indeed another one of my “theological crisis” moments.

 

I guess you can call me a “Theological Social Worker” who believes the Bible is all true and yet, not all truth.  Truth did not end with the last book of the Old Testament Scriptures nor did it end with the last book of the New Testament Scriptures.  The Bible is a living book; Scripture which Paul instructed Timothy to not lose sight but to continue.  Christians are called do justly and righteously (Micah 6:8).  We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Mark 12:29-31), and, should a fellow believer be faced with a “theological crisis,” we should be there to support and lift up; reaffirm and confirm one’s foundation of faith.  There are many doctrines, interpretations and religious beliefs but there is only one truth Jesus said of himself in the Gospel of John, “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE” (John 14:6).