The Power of the Bible
by Rev. Dr. Mona West
"The Bible is a powerful book. What is more
important to realize is that interpretations of the Bible are just
as powerful."
~ Rev. Dr. Mona West, The Power of the Bible
In this intense document, Rev. Dr. West examines the
influential nature of the Bible and Biblical interpretation. She
offers a clear, concise analysis of the powerful effects of current
culture on the uses of scripture...especially regarding minorities and
GLBT peoples of faith.
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The Power of the
Bible
By Rev. Mona West, Ph.D.
The Bible is a powerful book. What is more important
to realize is that interpretations of the Bible are just
as powerful. New Testament scholar, Mary Ann Tolbert, points out that
every interpretation of a text in the Bible is a combination of the
stories themselves and the interests, commitments, and beliefs of the
person or groups reading the stories.
Different Voices Interpreting Scripture
Because the Bible was written centuries ago and came
from an ancient near eastern culture, it is difficult at times to know
exactly what the Bible says about certain issues—especially
contemporary ones. For a long time it was thought that the best way, the
scientific way, of interpreting the Bible was to discover the original
intent of the author of a particular biblical passage.
It was also thought that meaning could only be found in
the words of the text of the Bible itself.
However, in the 1980’s this approach to
interpreting the Bible was called into question, most specifically by
women. Feminist approaches to scripture
discovered that what had been presented as ‘objective’ and
‘scientific’ biblical interpretations, were actually forms
of interpretation done from the bias of a particular group:
white, heterosexual men with a Eurocentric focus—a
group that had been (and continues to be) in positions of power in universities and seminaries where the Bible is studied
and biblical interpretation is taught. This
same group also dominated (and still does) pulpits where the Bible
isinterpreted. Feminists and other groups
discovered that there has been a long legacy of biblical interpretation
that kept a certain group in power. Such groups influence the way the
Bible is read and understood in any given society.
Once this bias was exposed by feminists, there were
other groups that began to realize they had been left out of the
interpretive enterprise: African, Latin,
Asian and Native peoples in particular. These groups began to add their own voices and understandings
to biblical interpretation.
Readers Make Meaning
In addition to these new voices, the theological
community has also shifted the focus of how meaning is made when one
reads and interprets a biblical text. Not
only can there be meaning in the author’s original intent (which
in many cases may never be known with an ancient text like the
Bible), but
meaning can be derived by the reader. Meaning actually happens in
the interaction between reader and
text. This
concept has greatly impacted biblical interpretation because now who
is reading the text is just as important
as who wrote the text.
There really is no unbiased, objective reading of the
Bible. All of us bring a particular
‘self’ to the text; a self that is shaped by a variety of
factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, religious affiliation,
socioeconomic standing, education, and sexual orientation. Readers are
also members of specific communities and personal history with that
community shapes the way they approach a biblical text. These
unique perspectives of readers are called one’s social
location.
Another term for social location is ‘community situation
approach.’ The
community’s life experiences and the relation of scripture to the
community’s needs determine the ways in which the community makes
sense of texts in the Bible. Each group finds a point, or points, of
reference from which to read, reclaim and re-appropriate the meaning of
scripture for the community in liberating and affirming
ways. In African American communities the
point of reference is often the theme of deliverance. In gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) communities,
the point of reference is often the theme of coming out.
Ironically, the readers most in touch with their
social locations as they relate to the Bible are members of communities
who have been marginalized because of the dominant group’s use of
scripture against them. Women and African
Americans for example have traced the history of biblical interpretation
within their own communities and identified key concerns and strategies
for appropriating and reclaiming scripture.
GLBT people also have a particular history with the
Bible. Like women and African Americans, the
Bible has been used against us to justify oppression. And like women and African Americans, we have developed
strategies for appropriating and reclaiming scripture.
A Brief History of GLBT Biblical Interpretation
The history of GLBT biblical interpretation can be
traced through the preaching and scholarship that has taken place
in MetropolitanCommunityChurch, a
denomination founded in 1968 by Rev. Troy Perry. The Bible has been read and interpreted consistently and
intentionally in the classrooms and pulpits of
MCCcongregations since the beginning of this
denomination. More than any other community,
the members of MCChave brought their
particular life experiences to bear on reading and interpreting
scripture in liberating ways for GLBT people.
A handful of scriptures that are used against the GLBT
community to promote homophobia and violence. These texts are often called the ‘clobber passages’
because of the abusive way they have been used. Over the years, GLBT biblical interpretation has moved from
a defensive stance toward the Bible, to
an offensive stance. For instance, historical criticism
and linguistics demonstrated that there is much ambiguity concerning the
translation and interpretation of such words as yadah ‘to know’ in Genesis 19, mishkav zakur
‘the lyings of a male’ in the Leviticus
passages, para pusin ‘against
nature’ in Romans 1, malakoi ‘soft’ in 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy
1.
More recently GLBT people have moved toward embracing
the Bible as a friendly text. Instead of limiting our energies to
always defending ourselves against a few
obscure passages, energy is being spent on reading the whole Bible as
the Word of God for our community.
This offensive stance assumes that there is more to
addressing the message of the Bible than just silencing the clobber
passages. This offensive stance includes
identifying texts that affirm same sex love and the goodness of human
sexuality. The stories of Jonathan and David
and Ruth and Naomi have been preached from many
MCCpulpits as examples of same sex love. The Song of Songs has
been lifted up as a text that celebrates the joy of human sexuality
which is not measured by marital or procreative status.
Reading Strategies
In addition to this particular history of biblical
interpretation,GLBT biblical interpreters share at least three reading
strategies with feminists that disarm harmful interpretations of
biblical texts and highlight the positive role of
scripture: a revisionist approach,
imaginative identification, and, as previously mentioned, social
location.
For feminists, the revisionist approach attempts to rediscover all the information about women that
still can be found in biblical writings. GLBT biblical interpreters have
used this strategy to rediscover all the information we can about same
sex relationships in the Bible. The feminist
revisionist approach also seeks to address layers of androcentric
(emphasizing masculine interests or point of view) interpretation of
biblical texts, claiming that biblical texts themselves are not
misogynist but have been patriarchalized by interpreters who have
projected their androcentric cultural bias onto biblical texts.
Likewise, GLBT scholars have
claimed that the Bible has nothing to say in the current debate about
homosexuality as a sexual orientation and any attempts
to use scripture in the debate is the result of the homophobic bias of
the interpreter. Also, along with feminists, GLBT biblical interpreters have
learned Greek and Hebrew in order to correct false translations and
commentaries.
The feminist reading strategy of imaginative
identification imagines or assumes women
characters in biblical stories where they might not be explicitly
mentioned. For
example it would stand to reason (or imagination) that the daughters
of Israelwould be gathered at Sinai if the sons of
Israelwere there.
Nancy Wilson, in her book Our Tribe: Queer Folks, God,
Jesus, and the Bible, applies imaginative
identification to biblical texts and claims that if at any given time in
history and cultures there have been a percentage of people who have a
same sex orientation then it would stand to reason and imagination that
some of these people are in the biblical story. She wonders if the
eunuchs—sexual minorities in the biblical story—might be the
spiritual ancestors of gay and lesbian people today. How might their roles as ‘go betweens,’ and
mediators be related to a similar priestly function of ‘two
spirited’ (transgender) peoples in ancient tribal
cultures?
The Formative Power of Scripture
All three reading strategies are important for gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. They are necessary for our survival—physical and
spiritual. They begin to move us toward the
Bible as a friendly text, rather than a text of terror.
Still another shift needs to take place for GLBT
people of faith and our relationship with the Bible. All of the strategies outlined approach the Bible as an object
to be studied, interpreted or debated. They
function in the realm of reading for information. We
are the ones asking questions of the text, its history, its
interpretation.
As gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people begin
to feel safe with the Bible we will be able to trust the formative power of
scripture. In addition to reading the Bible
for information, we must read the Bible for formation—our spiritual formation. In our desire to grow spiritually,
all of us, regardless of sexual orientation, are invited by the Holy
Spirit to let the Word of God read us.
Sources for Further Study
Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schussler (1992). But She Said: Feminist
Practices of Biblical Interpretation.
Boston: Beacon
Press.
Goss, Bob and Mona West, eds. (2000). Take Back the Word: A Queer
Readingof
the Bible.Cleveland: Pilgrim
Press.
Segovia, Fernando and Mary Ann Tolbert, eds.
(1995). Readingfrom
the Place: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in the
United
States. Philadelphia:
Fortress Press
Wilson, Nancy(1995). Our Tribe: Queer Folks, God, Jesus, and the Bible.
San Francisco: Harper & Row.
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