there is so much to write and think about right now. there is the ongoing debate about russian meddling in this year's election, the divided democratic party and the primary contests between the representatives of the factions within the party, the policies of the current administration, the harm that an arrogant and untruthful president is doing to our nation. i'm not going to write about any of that today, though. instead i want to write about misgivings i'm having with an activity that my wife and i have begun.
at our church, we've met several couples who are around our age and, after repeated invitations from several of them, have begun attending a sunday school class that meets after church. we've both resisted participating in sunday school for a number of reasons, the most important of which is the experiences both of us had as children and teenagers growing up in the church, when well-intended teachers with little training fed us the "party line" of our churches' official position on theology. now as adults we reject much of what we were taught in those sunday morning classes and don't want to participate in the grown-up version of our childhood indoctrination sessions.
one of the things that we've discovered in the few classes we've attended is that there is a wide variety of viewpoints in this class and the participants seem to feel that they can speak freely in voicing their opinions. we are studying the old testament and its influence on the teachings of jesus, and we're not far enough into the study for me to get a sense of what the author's position on the origins of the books of the old testament are and his position on the idea of biblical inerrancy. the study's unfailing preference for referring to god with masculine pronouns suggests that the author has a conservative theological perspective, but perhaps that is a stylistic choice that will be explained as we go along.
i don't know if my own beliefs about the old testament will be radical or widely held among the others in the class, never having had conversations of any length with any of them before. i find that the tendency among most christians, even those in our liberal-leaning church, is to accept basic orthodox positions without much thought about its implications. there have been several mentions about the off-putting effect of the violence in much of the old testament but so far no explanations of what are the implications of this propensity for mass killing with regards to our understanding of the nature of god or the teachings of jesus.
too, there has been no opinion offered about the literal truth of what we read in the old testament or if the author believes that the first books of the old testament were actually written by moses. so far, there have been no words about the many writings about the old testament that are part of the jewish religious tradition or of the apocryphal books. it was telling to me that the beginning of the study grouped the books of the jewish bible into the categories of history, poetry, prophecy, and wisdom literature, but there was no mention of the song of solomon and its place in these categories, though all the other books in the "wisdom" and "poetry" categories were mentioned. i look forward to learning the author's position on what solomon's song means and how he thinks we should approach it.
as the study progresses, i look forward to hearing not only the author's opinions but those of the other members of the class. i'll mostly listen and refrain from offering my own opinions until i see in what direction the study and comments on it moves. from what i've seen so far, i'm not fearful of recriminations if my own point of view deviates from the orthodox, but i don't want to offend anyone's religious sensibilities if i can help it and still be true to myself. if i find i can't speak honestly then i'll withdraw from the class, but i don't think that will be necessary. the members of the class are people that i feel an affinity for. they have been sincere in welcoming us, assuring us that they have fun together in their studies. that appears to be the case in what we've seen so far.
may we approach others looking for the best in them. may we not be wary of forming new friendships or rekindling old ones. may we be tolerant of the beliefs of others, never condemning them because we don't agree with them. may we speak our own minds with truthfulness and gentleness. may we love without condition, even if the object of our love is unlovely. shalom.
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