MAGAts think anything they call the will of God automatically is. They also believe anything they say a passage of scripture means is automatically what it means. They are usually wrong both ways.
About Martin Luther‘s valiant efforts during the Reformation to get scripture into the hands, in the vernacular, of the non-clergy types. Results haven’t all been good.
It seems tough to me to be a Protestant or at least to have once been a Protestant and not appreciate the extraordinary contributions of the remarkable Martin Luther. He became mortified at how an educated and greedy clergy with papal approval (long before my current religious hero, Pope Leo) could take advantage of the trusting, sometimes uneducated, rank and file communicants. Indulgences. Relics. Fearmongering.
Dr Martin Luther
Luther’s heart was in the right place with all of the energy he put into getting scripture translated into the vernacular of his people and into their hands so that the ones among them who could read could nonetheless have access to scripture for themselves without any required interventions from priests.
A meticulous scripture scholar himself, Luther did not envision that the laity would always read scripture for themselves, relying only on their own resources for understanding and interpretation. It’s one thing to have favorite parts of scripture, such as one of Luther’s scholarly areas—the book of Psalms, to read devotionally and such. It’s entirely something else to appoint oneself a bonefide biblical interpreter and to present one’s interpretation as authoritative—especially in reference to prophecies and harsh judgmentalism.
Unfortunately, and all too often tragically, that later scenario has become commonplace. MAGAts are the worst. Case in point. Netanyahu‘s genocide is applauded by many Christian fundamentalists as a part of what must happen, according to scripture, in order for the current world order to end. Bullshit.
As much as it pains me to take an unpopular position
I will here.
One of the inevitable outgrowths of letting anybody who claims to be a Bible scholar believe it and act on it is that those who do not feel thusly empowered or informed too often refuse to question anybody who makes such a claim and who seems sincere. They passively accept whatever someone like I’ve described claims. This can be disastrous.
I’m a professional theologian. All of my degrees including my doctorate have had something to do with scripture interpretation. I feel very fortunate to have had those opportunities. I say what follows with my experience in mind.
Very few people even the most sincere are able to read and understand Hebrew scripture and Christian scripture without study tools connected to linguistics, history, sociology. Biblical interpretation done correctly is very hard work, which is one reason true scripture scholars spend a lifetime on their searches. Furthermore, there are very few passages in either Hebrew scripture or Christian scripture that have only one possible interpretation as affirmed by the worldwide community of biblical scholars.
So someone on Substack today had a detractor who slammed her or him with the news that LGBTQIA people should be put to death according to the Bible. That is not true.
It is much clearer in scripture, although MAGAts won’t accept it—which doesn’t negate it—that liars and adulterers must be put to death.
Let us begin as soon as all senators and Congress people and Supreme Court justices return to DC from various recesses with the process of having all in those groups who are adulterers put to death according to biblical directives. Stoned will then have a very different meaning than it has at the White House both times Taco Trump has squatted there.
What? The hell I say. Yes I do.