Jack Pelham

You do not really know the man
Until you know what he knows.

This is a profile of three Christians and their views about who decided what should be the Bible. These profiles are based on my own observations about people, though they are not designed to mimic any particular persons. And I didn’t design this post to be exhaustive, but to be useful. That is to say that there may well be other views than what I have listed here, but these are certainly sufficient to get you thinking about what people think, and why they might think it. As you’ll see, I have much more to say about the second Christian than about the first or third.

If all those people out there who are
Teaching the Bible wrong
Are damnable heretics,
Then what does that make me when I
Get something about the Bible wrong?

Is it just a simple error from innocent
Ignorance or miscalculation on my part,
Where on theirs, it’s a signal of wanton wickedness?

And what if they, twisted as they are,
Should condemn me for getting something wrong,
Thinking that I am evil,
Rather than simply mistaken?

That, too, would be condemnable,
Wouldn’t it?

We all sin in many ways—
In thought, action, and will.
And I don’t see any case among us
Where somebody couldn’t try harder
To get things right when it comes to
Interpreting and teaching the Bible.

So maybe we could dial it back
A notch or two when it comes to
Branding others as “heretics”—
Especially by way of tests that
We could not pass ourselves.

I’m not saying there’s no such thing
As a heretic anymore, but really,
I think that oftentimes the main motive for
Branding someone this way
Is merely to dehumanize them as a member
Of some other camp than our own—
Even if we say it’s for the purpose of
Protecting our own camp from false teachings—
As if we weren’t already in error
In several ways ourselves.

Calling someone else a heretic
Does not prove that I am not one myself.

It might as well be endless, this body of work left by the ancient Hebrews—now exploded by numerous translations—each done by those who assumed too often that they understood what they were reading—who may have thought it certain that they were serving by passing it along to us as it was intended by its authors.

I am in so many ways
The product of my choices—
The aggregate of my decisions—
And the consequences thereof.

It is regrettable to me in this moment,
During which I am trying to relate to you
Some new and useful information
For the quest on which you have set out,
That I cannot make you think
While you listen—
Or, to put it metaphorically, that I cannot
Make you listen while you listen.

And so you will go your way,
And then come back again
After you find yourself in need
Of the information that I just now
Attempted to pass on to you.

Was Satan involved in the Cain and Abel story? I think so. Let me show you what I find in the various texts and you can judge for yourself. And you can read my poem about it here if you like.

When you hold to a position
That is demonstrably false,
Whether in fact, in logic, or morality—
And you know—
Or should know,
That it is flawed—

This is an outcropping—
This is a signal—
This is an evidence—
That you have mismanaged yourself—
That you have misstepped in this real world.

I look at the young guy and see
His pride oozing from his pores,
Plain as day for me to see.

And which shall I do first?—
Remember when I was like that myself,
Or hope there are yet older guys than me,
Who can see his pride and mine?

And if this is how it is,
It seems so silly we don’t
All tell each other more often,
For I’m getting to the age where
I’d really like to grow up faster.