Stop taking the Bible so SeRiOuSlY
Okay, so born-and-raised Christian here, and I had the funniest thought to come across my mind today.
A lot more younger people would probably be receptive to religions (in my head, Christianity, since that’s what I’m familiar with) if people stopped teaching it so... seriously? Like, The Bible makes a lot more sense when you look at it from a human perspective and not some lofty-theologian know-it-all perspective. Like, knowing your stuff helps, yes, but for the average person, the Bible makes a lot more sense as far as relatability goes.
Don’t believe me? If you were to sit down a bunch of Gen Z people and tell them about a dude who messed up so bad that when his friends broke the news to him via story (so as to get the point but maybe not hurt him too badly), he freaked out so much he had a meltdown and wrote a song about how horrible of a person he was and how nothing he could do could right this wrong he’s done, I feel like a lot of them would go “Mood.”
Oh really? Well, that’s exactly how King David reacted upon Nathan pointing out how he messed up with the entire Bathsheba and Uriah business.
How about one of the right-hand-men of Jesus Christ himself being a nervous wreck and constantly screwing up so badly and overreacting so much that he cuts a guy’s ear off, only for Jesus to go, “Dude, you want to get stabbed? Stop it. I’ll be fine.” and heal the guy’s ear.
Jesus literally told Peter (same guy as before) that he’d deny or renounce him three times, and Peter went “No I won’t! In fact, I’ll die for you!” Only for Peter to then go on and deny Jesus three times.
If people look past the fact that it’s a religious text and actually look at the people, I think they’d be amazed at how relatable some of these people are.
Also, huge amounts of diversity and inclusion, even in the Old Testament! Yes, it focuses on the Israelites, but in pretty much every story where the Israelites are facing an enemy, not all of them are bad and some are spared. (And usually, these people were women of low status, like prostitutes.) In fact, women play a HUGE roll in some of the most important events in the Bible! A prostitute hides Israelites spies while they’re checking out the Promised Land. Thanks to Esther, the Israelites were saved from genocide, and an entire holiday is based around that event.
If you still don’t believe me, Read. The. Book. Of. Ruth. She is a widowed Gentile who wishes to help her mother-in-law and ends up marrying another man (there is stuff in there that sounds weird, but if you look into their traditions, it actually all makes sense), and she ends up in the family tree of David and, later, Jesus himself.
It was women who found the tomb rolled away at first. This was the most important in the entire Bible, and women were the first on the scene.
The Bible isn’t just some high, lofty thing for people who have gone to seminary school and theology school for a decade to read. It is so relatable and has stories of minority groups for the ages. Seriously, the Bible is so much better when read like a novel than a history textbook.
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