I recently had a brief, unproductive exchange in the comment section of this blog with a Christian who, among other things, accused me of not believing that the Bible is the Word of God. As we exchanged comments, I felt a certain deja vu–I felt that I was conversing with someone from my past. I was raised in a version of Christianity in which, for all intents and purposes, we worshipped the Bible as God’s inerrant Word and God’s final statement on everything. Many of the vehicles in our church parking lot had a bumper sticker that said “God Said It. I Believe It. That Settles It.”
Although I left that version of Christianity decades ago, I carry its influences wherever I go. I wrote an essay about parallels between this simplistic statement of faith and various trends in our current political world recently; it was published in Bearlings Online, a publication of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, about a year ago. It strikes me that it bears repeating.
God Said It. I Believe It. That Settles It. (Except It Doesn’t.)
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