I was in my early thirties doing campus ministry at UC San Diego. Walking down the free speech mall, one could not help but notice a huge display with artistic signs, showing the beauty of nature. No, this was not the Sierra Club. Indeed, the pictures were intended to provoke thoughts of spirituality and, truth be told, I was passing the Hare Krishna table. I guess their shaved heads and tan robes were the biggest give away. Hare Krishnas are an offshoot of Hinduism, a religion which teaches that God and nature are actually one and the same. God did not create the universe; God is the universe. Hare Krishnas have moved away from such teaching, but Hinduism, with its impersonal view of God, is still an origin they must contend with.
Controversial as such a theology might be, my Krishna friends had a different agenda this sunny day. In big bold letters, one of their signs said, “THE BIBLE IS A VEGETARIAN BOOK.” Justification for this healthy but inaccurate idea came from Genesis. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they ate plants, not animals. Sounds great. Only one problem: After these early chapters, the Bible continues for a very long time and teaches thousands of things beyond the situation in Eden.
“Are you aware,” I said to them, “That in the Bible, God not only allowed people to eat meat, but there were many customs and holidays through which He commanded them to eat meat?”
“That’s your interpretation,” they replied.
“No, that’s what it says when you read it.”
“The Bible is a spiritual book and it can be interpreted many different ways.”
Nothing I said was going to make a difference. They had long since made up their minds. I share this story for the following reasons:
1) It is typical of the times we live in. People make all kinds of comments about the Bible without having even read it.
2) People believe what they want to believe. Often, I am asked why there are not more Christians if Christianity is true. I have no desire to overly simplify a complicated question, but this is at least part of the answer: People believe what they want to believe.
3) Despite such human tendencies, new movements, cults and varying religions generally exhibit a great respect for the Bible. They use the Bible as a launching pad to promote their own unique doctrines. No matter what they teach, no matter how bizarre it may sound, they want to assure you that Jesus and the apostles believed exactly the same thing. If you show them otherwise by turning to the words of Jesus, they will gently resist your “interpretation” of the Bible, without explaining how their own interpretation should automatically be accepted as the accurate reading.
One must marvel over this phenomenon, people who perhaps have a subjective sense that the Bible comes from God, who would feel unhappy or disappointed if you told them they are not truly obeying the Bible, but who still are unwilling to deal honestly with what the real words on the real pages really say.
This is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.
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