With my thoughts on the Flintstones Fallacy in general, and it's application with the John Piper/"Slaughtering God" episode specifically, I'm trying to open a conversation on how we look at the scriptures through an evolutionary worldview, as people who are continually changing.
In that light, Richard Rohr's comments this week might be the best thinking I have heard on the subject.
As we continue to grow, how do we do this? How do we look at sacred documents that were written a longtime ago by people who were very different then us? What can we expect?
Here's the good Father:
When the Scriptures are used maturely, they proceed in this order:
- They confront us with a bigger picture than we are used to, “God’s kingdom” that has the potential to “deconstruct” our false and smaller kingdoms.
- They then have the power to convert us to an alternative worldview by proclamation, grace, and the sheer attraction of the good, the true, and the beautiful (not by shame, guilt, or fear which are low-level motivations, but which operate more quickly and so churches often resort to them).
- They then console us and bring deep healing as they “reconstruct” us in a new place with a new mind and heart.
These three brief points can serve as both a guide and a practical reality check as we move forward, allowing the scriptures to be what they are, and releasing them from the smallness in which we have confined them.
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