Do Obama's Politics Mock God? (How to Read the Bible)

I recently viewed a YouTube video that accused President Obama of mocking the Bible in a speech where he said Christians misread the Bible. In his speech Obama asked which parts of the Bible we should take literally. He stated:

“Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is o.k. and the eating of shellfish is an abomination, or we could go with Deuteronomy which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith, or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount, a passage that is so radical that it is doubtful our own Defense Department would survive its application.”

By calling this a stunning “mockery of the Bible” the video contributor turned Obama’s meaning on its head. Obama was not mocking the Bible, he was calling down those who misread the Bible. By contrasting Old Testament tribalism with the Sermon on the Mount, Obama was contrasting the words of Jesus, God’s beloved Son, with the human rules of the Old Testament which Jesus revised in the Sermon on the Mount.

The video commentator concluded from Obama’s mockery that a true believer who reads the Bible properly would never “turn the other cheek” when facing a terrorist threat. Now who is mocking the Bible? Obama’s point flew right over the commentator’s head because the responder had a political axe to grind. The commentator is a phony literalist and a confused thinker.

While Obama’s speech honored Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the commentator dissed Jesus’ “turn the other cheek” dictum. He turned biblical “literalism” into useless relativism. It is a sad day when Christians can’t think in a straight line and their politics trump Jesus. The usual biblical literalism is a trademark of Christian conservatism that risks hindering one from appreciating the deeper spiritual truths Christ preached. This is a shame, for there is something to be said for “literalism.“

I would like to contribute to clearing the air of religiously toxic notions and attitudes that pollute serious political discussions. Literalism, when seen as an expression of spiritual reality fittingly defined, can bolster both church and state in their respective collaborative realms. Purity of religion and wisdom in politics are not necessary antagonists. I won’t try to change your political opinions (I have written other blogs for that), but I have another way to understand “biblical literalism.”

Is the Bible the Literal Word of God?

Yes, the Bible is God’s literal word, told by humans who had varying degrees of articulating skills. The Bible is God speaking through assorted testifiers with human and cultural limitations who insistently, often pitiably, misapplied the message in their subsequent attempts to obey and worship--something Jesus repeatedly pointed out to the Scribes and Pharisees. These theological mechanics tinkered with the Word, using human myopia and cultural biases as their playbook. This is what so frustrated Jesus, who tried to display God’s true (literal) “word” to them. Jesus defined the “Word” of God as the “Way", and “we”--he and his disciples--as family heirs. On earth as God’s literal “image,” we, like Jesus who was also a physical human, have the choice to reflect that “Way.” Our earthly testimonials have validity by virtue of our position as “images“ of God. By following the “Way” we reflect the divine image truly. We are It, family, joint heirs. The epigraphic words of the Bible are important, insufficient message carriers in inked form, but humans telling their stories are God’s literal message signs.

I am holding on to the term “literal,” but I am giving it a more alive and useful meaning. The Bible is not a theology text; it is a narrative of personal stories; it is God speaking to us about the “literal” meaning of the Way. Human articulation ought not, and need not obscure the literally alive meaning of stories imbedded in the spirit of creatures who are God creatively expressing Divine Experience. Divinely sourced creatures are God-speaking. We are God’s Word, as was Jesus. God’s creatures do not stand apart from God, they are part of God standing. The Gospel of John says the Word, from the beginning, is God, literally. The Word is the Way of literal aliveness. Jesus was God by accepting his Way-connection. By boarding onto the Way we each apply the epoxy of the union of Wayness. God’s word is literal (alive) and we are God’s testimonial image of this. Human stories are in the Bible and all around us literally. We are God in Word, as storied in the Bible, just as Jesus was the Word in God’s Way.

Jesus was able to see through the missteps and small mindedness in the Jewish story writings to underline how the “Way” is the true God-in-action. That is why Jesus did not say to read his theological scribbles; he said follow and join my Way. We are God’s Word when we follow the Way. Humans are God-telling-the-divine-story, and the divine story includes all the warted parts. So, yes, the Bible is God’s literal truth. Jesus, a clear visioned human, saw how to (re)interpret the written voicings of the Old Testament through which God speaks. He said the Way, God’s Word, is better understood as a practice rather than a “creed” signed onto on the bottom inked line. The Bible is God’s literal word because there we read the story of Jesus, a human expression and model of God-the-Way.

Jesus was God speaking, and so are we. God’s word is God’s story. As Eli Wiesel has said it, God created humans because God loves good stories. All of us tell something about God, because we are God speaking. And the Bible is a good source book--primary material as historians would put it. We just need to not lose track of the message as we work our way through the drama and twists of each biblical chapter. If you skip and jump around mistaking the small literals for the big literal, the ending will be too big a surprise to believe, as Jesus’ message was to the Jewish temple leaders. Let’s look at the “literal” message of Jesus’ living testimony and place the Old Testament stories in proper cultural context, as Obama did in his speech, and just as Jesus did when he accepted Pilate’s awkwardly worded suggestion that he (Jesus) was God’s true message translator for the Jewish people.

If the YouTube video commentator wants to be a witness for Christ, he should avoid politics until he gets a better grip on the literal Gospel message.