Second verse, same as the first …

Second verse, same as the first … August 16, 2012

This is no laughing matter.

Your problem is a lack of faith. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our minds. That means we must submit all of our intellect and accept the authority of the text.

You’ve got it backwards. All that book learning has convinced you that your intellect should be applied to the text, when really it’s the other way around. And that is why you refuse to accept what the text plainly teaches: gorillas can talk.

It’s right there, plain as day. You either accept it as it is, or you reject it. But realize that in refusing to accept the word of the text, you’re elevating yourself above it. You’re acting like you’re God.

And I seem to recall another story about a  talking beast having something to say about that, hmm?

You’re always going on about there being “many different kinds of texts,” but really there are only two. There are texts whose authority you accept, and texts whose authority you despise.

And, no, I do not think “despise” is too strong a word for the fanciful way you’re twisting the plain, obvious meaning of this story — the gymnastics you resort to just to avoid reading it literally as it was meant to be read.

Not only are you rejecting the plainly stated reality of the story, but you turn it on its head! You insist that gorillas cannot talk and then you even claim — and here I quote — that this is somehow “the whole point!” That’s absurd. If you’re trying to teach that gorillas cannot talk, then you don’t tell a story about a talking gorilla.

When the text gives us a story about a talking gorilla, it can obviously mean one and only one thing: gorillas can talk. That is clearly what this story teaches us and it is clearly what this story was written to teach.

But you lack the faith that would let you understand that. I just feel sorry for you. But I will keep you in my prayers.


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