The title of this post is adopted from the NakedPastor's blog over at www.nakedpastor.com
He has recently posted a cartoon entitled "Skeptical Sparrow."
The cartoon is as follows:
(Property of David Hayward at the NakedPastor Blog) See http://www.nakedpastor.com/2011/05/30/skeptical-sparrow/ for more details.
In his reflection, he states that the Sparrow on the right expresses "fear and anger" at his questioning of the passage in Matthew 10:29 (NRSV):
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
This is how I felt when I learned a lot of the things I was initially taught (or assumed to be so) when I was a teenager growing up in church and trying to defend a fundamentalist-intellectual form of the Bible. I assumed that certain things had to be so: that all of the Bible had to be history and had to have happened literally.
So, when I learned that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John weren't written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (two of which are supposed followers of Jesus, Matthew and John) but these names were appended to the Gospels in the 2nd century CE, it was startling. When I learned that Mark was the earliest Gospel and was written nearly FORTY years after Jesus was crucified, I was shocked.
When I learned that Matthew misappropriated certain passages from the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and misused/misapplied them to Jesus' birth, life, death, and "resurrection," I was afraid.
When I learned that the Bible was chock full of historical errors and contradictions within itself, I was angry.
I was afraid of what was going to happen to my personal faith and I was angry at those who taught me the Bible was inerrant (free of error) and was the inspired, literal "Word of God."
Now, through the usage of metaphor and a lot of time spend rethinking my personal theology, I am transitioning into the "peace and wisdom" that comes with accumulated life and applied knowledge.
I understand that religion (especially the texts that support the religion) contain history but transcend history into a greater, mythical story of meaning and communal experience with the Divine.
Now, for me, religion is primarily a system of meaning-making for all the events of life, including life itself.
I cannot insist on objective accomplishments regarding metaphysical events but I can affirm what is true and right for me.
I can affirm my personal experiences and my relationship to the Divine Other and to others through my religious experience.
I can affirm that I am human and that I am surrounded by other sentient beings who desire much what we all desire.
I can reach out through my developing peace and wisdom in love and compassion to others.
I can be holistic and not fractured in my outlook on life. I can be...
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