Josh Scott's New Book: Cross-Examined

And links to upcoming video with Thomas Jay Oord

‣ Check it Out: Some Upcoming Things and Some Past Things

‣ Josh Scott's New Book: Cross-Examined

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‣ Check it Out: Some Upcoming Things and Some Past Things

Uno: Here’s a link to this Friday's conversation with

Tori E. Owens

and

Thomas Jay Oord

.

Dos: Last week's

Bradley Jersak

conversation can be found here.

Tres: Paul Young (of The Shack) has been very gracious to me on his podcast. He reads a portion of indigo on this episode.

Cuatro: Have you left a comment on my Hell Publication? Because most everyone else on Substack has and I want you to get in on the fun.

Cinco: Apparently, my weak theology is gaining strength as I'm #76 on the rising faith and spirituality Substack list. I don't really know what this means, but in writing-world, you take whatever positive metrics you can get. So, thank you.

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Hey, I’m including an extra publication this week because today, my friend

Josh Scott

has a new book coming out … Cross-Examined: Reading the Bible in Times of Division. Get it here.

As I was reading Cross-Examined, I kept hearing the lyrics to that old Faces song, "When I Was Younger." Well, technically the song is called "Ooh, La La" but that's probably the worst title in the history of song making, so, I'll stick with that catchy line from the chorus, that, when expanded, goes "I wish, that, I knew what I know now, when I was younger," because what Josh writes about is something I could've benefited from greatly as a young pastor.

I don't know how it's possible that I was well into my 30s and neck deep into pastoral ministry before I realized just how many passages in the Bible problematize, if not outright contradict, other passages in the Bible, but that's how it went for me.

• It wasn't until I was having a discussion in my office with a caucasian man (by the way, sometimes I refuse to capitalize the word caucasion) and we were talking about the Genesis "curse of Ham” passage that I realized he was trying to stay biblical by leveraging an unhealthy interpretation of that passage, the outcome of which led to him justify racism. Oh brother.

• It wasn't until a parishioner demanded I be more biblical about atonement, which, of course, meant that I needed to adhere to penal substitutionary atonement (something I write about in the post you can find here) that I realized how addicted we are to sacrifice. Gross.

• It wasn't until someone was sitting in my office, disclosing their trauma with sexual partners (something I refer to in the note you can find here), that it dawned on me how dumb it was to trump the gracious words of Jesus around sexuality with the legalistic words of Moses on sexuality. Seriously.

• It wasn't until someone was pointing their finger and yelling at me (yes, in that same office … gosh, now that I think of it, lots of drama in that poor office)… anyhow, it was until i was being yelled at that it dawned upon me how easy it was for the church to orient itself around authoritative, masculine hierarchical power simply because of our presuppositional baggage that Scripture must be interpreted through an authoritative, masculine hierarchical lens. Silly.

I mention these scenarios specifically because, in each case, if I had been aware of something like Josh’s work, I would've felt more comfortable leaning into my intuition around love and had a wonderful little resource to help church members do the same.

It has become increasingly clear to me over the years that Scripture itself is one of, if not the single biggest, stumbling block for many Americanized-christians. (Sometimes, I refuse to capitalize the word christian.) Often, this is true because of our misunderstanding about power, which leads us to fall prey to one of the oldest temptations in the book: to leverage our interpretation of the text in order to increase our group’s hold on power.

And we know this is one of the oldest temptations in the book because, literally, it's something the devil did in that old book, the bible (sometimes I refuse to capitalize the word bible). Good grief, read the Temptation of Jesus passage and tell me that our spiritual enemy wasn't trying to push Jesus into a corner using Scripture. This one story could forever give us pause when it comes to how we approach the text, but alas, we keep missing it. 🤦🏼‍♂️

Rather than a static, rules-based approach to the bible, I advocate for adaptivity and evolution. Maybe Josh says it better: "Over time, as they [the people] learned new things about God, humanity, and the world, they adjusted their interpretations to make space for the new truths they were learning. Like us, the authors of the biblical texts and the communities they belonged to were in process. They didn't just get all the information they needed downloaded to their brains by God in an instant. God worked with them, invited and led them over time as they had the capacity."

Yes and amen. ✅

If you're looking for a healthy, palatable resource to give to family and friends who are struggling with their approach to the bible, then I highly recommend Cross-Examined. "Our choice,” as Josh says, “is not between abandoning the Bible or ignoring the issues that matter to us. The goal is to take the Bible seriously as an ancient library that contains the experiences, interpretations, and dreams of our spiritual ancestors. Then we can begin to discover how the Bible, theology, and faith can be an unfolding process that is still meaningful and helpful today."

Ooh, la, la … I wish I had known that when I was younger.

Peace everyone✌🏼