Feb 12
14
Pervasive Interpretive Pluralism – Christian Smith
“For the average man, whether within or without the church, is not controlled in his conduct toward his brother man by the principles and precepts of Jesus, but by the laws of social and individual selfishness.” –A.H. Grimke
Commenting on William Garrison’s campaign to bring an end to slavery in the United States, Grimke writes,
“Oh, if he could cry to the Church for help in this hour of his need! But it was slowly dawning on him that not from the Church would help come to his cause; for a grievous thing had happened to the Church. The slave gorgon sat staring from the pews, and turning the pulpits to stone, turning also to stone the hearts of the people.” [i]
Pervasive interpretive pluralism is one explanation for the opposing views of what the bible teaches. The slavery question is but one example; an example Smith appeals to. The church, the clergy and the majority of Christians from before the nation began found justification for slavery in their bibles.
But we must look beneath the surface:
- Did the bible produce the American practice of slavery
- Or, did the American practice of slavery produce that interpretation of the bible?
I suggest that American racism and greed for money and power resulted in our version of slavery, not an “intelligent and sincere reading” of the bible.
“Ah! The Abolitionists had undertaken to achieve the impossible, when they undertook to enlist the pulpit in the cause of the slaves, and to purify the churches from all participation in the guild of slavery. For the average man, whether within or without the church, is not controlled in his conduct toward his brother man by the principles and precepts of Jesus, but by the laws of social and individual selfishness.[ii]
Christian Smith, The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture.
[i]Grimke, Archibald Henry, William Lloyd Garrison. Funk and Wagnalls, New York: 1891, p. 50.
[ii] Grimke, p. 89.