Judge Not: A Liberal Defense of the Bible

There is a prevalent stereotype of Christianity, just as there is a stereotype of Islam and a stereotype of the New Age. According to this stereotype, "Christian" means "conservative, bigoted, and pro-war." But people who revel in such stereotypes often need to examine the qualities they project onto others. Stereotyping is itself a form of bigotry, and form of violence.

The truth is, many Christians are liberal, anti-war, multi-cultural, and deeply pluralistic in their acceptance of other religious paths. Their churches host gatherings for Yoga, Vipassana, Sufi dance, and Earth-centered spirituality. Their progressive vision is nourished by the Bible's call to social justice, mercy, and awe.

Taken literally of course, the Bible can be absurd and violent - just like life. But progressive Christians do not always read the scriptures literally. They read through the lens and language of symbolism, as mystics have read scripture in all religions. The Bible tells the story of consciousness itself: our separation from Source, our journey of return, and our re-union.

What makes the Bible profound is the telling of this story, not with pretty pink hearts and flowers, but with uncompromising realism and pathos about human nature. It is a story about men and women who are at once figurative yet utterly like ourselves. The Bible is not pablum, and not for the faint of heart. It can be terrifying and paradoxical, just as our journey of awakening can be terrifying and paradoxical.

The Bible is not history. Yet its language often employs historical events, personalities, and details of daily life as spiritual symbols. In many cases, these historical details are so accurate that archeologists use the Bible as a guide to their dig-sites, as in the case of the Biblical city of Ninevah, once thought to be mythical. The Bible is an utterly unique mix of history and parable, and intentionally so.

As for its literary quality, the structure of Biblical narrative is economical, ironic, and sublimely synchronized with the underlying psychic structure of our own life stories. The Bible is the mirror of the psyche, reflecting our shadow as well as our light. In the words of Yale English professor Harold Bloom, one of the world's most important literary critics, the Bible is our original textbook of human psychology. Great novelists from Shakespeare to Dickens, Melvill to Hardy, Thomas Mann, Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner, have drawn significantly on Biblical narrative and symbolism.

If you are one of those who cast the Bible aside with a sneer, just make sure it is not because you are afraid to look into its clear honest glass. And if you embrace the more liberal enlightened aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, Goddess worship or Native American lore, while refusing to acknowledge that each of these traditions has its brutes and bigots too, please try to avoid the hypocrisy of doing just the opposite with Biblical religion. For Bible-thumping fundamentalists are not the most typical, but undoubtedly the least typical, of Christians.