{"id":37527,"date":"2018-10-16T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T10:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=37527"},"modified":"2018-10-11T12:40:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T16:40:56","slug":"the-hermeneutic-of-harm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/10\/the-hermeneutic-of-harm\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hermeneutic of Harm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some churches teach that gay marriage, abortion, and other violations of traditional morality are not wrong at all.\u00a0 One might wonder, how can they do that?\u00a0 Certainly, non-Christians and churches that are so liberal that they don\u2019t believe in the authority of the Bible at all don\u2019t have a problem with making up their own morality.\u00a0 Most churches, though, want to keep at least some<\/em> connection to the Bible and to historical Christianity.\u00a0 So how do they rationalize their departures from historic Christianity?\u00a0 There are actually several ways.<\/p>\n

Some liberal Lutherans practice \u201cgospel reductionism,\u201d according to which Christians are bound only to the parts of the Bible that teach the gospel.\u00a0 But we don\u2019t have to follow the \u201claw\u201d parts.\u00a0 Episcopalians say that the Holy Spirit speaks both through the Bible and through tradition.\u00a0 I have heard liberal Episcopalians defend gay marriage in the name of \u201ctradition,\u201d which they construe to mean what the Church itself is in control of.\u00a0 This, of course, is the opposite of what tradition means\u2013namely, that churches must continue to follow and not change the teachings of the past.\u00a0 But the liberal theologians are using \u201ctradition\u201d as a license to revise Christian teachings, while claiming, as I have heard them say, that \u201cthe Holy Spirit is doing a new thing!\u201d\u00a0 (Notice how this episcopal theology, with its rule by bishops, is a progressive version of the Roman Catholic claim that the Holy Spirit speaks through the church\u2019s human leadership.)<\/p>\n

\n

Now I\u2019ve heard of a new way to twist Scripture according to your personal preferences.\u00a0 John Ehrett discusses what he calls the \u201chermeneutic of harm<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 This is an approach to interpreting the Bible favored by some progressive evangelicals\u2013or \u201cexvangelicals\u201d as they call themselves\u2013who want to keep an allegiance to the Scriptures.\u00a0 Although now that he mentions it, I have noticed this approach also in mainline circles.<\/p>\n

They reason that since the Bible is good and true and authoritative, it could never teach anything that is harmful.\u00a0 Since homosexuality is so self-evidently good, the Bible would never teach otherwise.\u00a0 Interpretations of the Bible that would use it to oppose gay marriage and the like must be incorrect.\u00a0 Conversely, we should interpret the Bible so that it will support the desired outcome.<\/p>\n

From John Ehrett,\u00a0Against the \u201cHermeneutic of Harm\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n

. . .There\u2019s a lot I disagree with in the \u201cexvangelical\u201d (or, perhaps more accurately, \u201cprogressive evangelical\u201d) space. Perhaps my greatest difficulty with this \u201cmovement\u201d is neatly epitomized by a particular theological-rhetorical development I\u2019ve recently noticed: something I\u2019ll call the \u201chermeneutic of harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve only recently noticed this concept, but it seems to have been percolating for some time. I first encountered it in the writings of Matthew Vines, author of the popular book\u00a0God and the Gay Christian<\/a><\/em>. In Vines\u2019\u00a0words<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In Matthew 7, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns against false teachers, and he offers a principle that can be used to test good teaching from bad teaching. By their fruit, you will recognize them, he says. Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Good teachings, according to Jesus, have good consequences. . . . If we\u2019re taking Jesus seriously that bad fruit cannot come from a good tree, then that should cause us to question whether the traditional teaching [on same-sex sexual behavior] is correct.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Popular writer Rachel Held Evans echoes this sentiment in her recent book\u00a0Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again<\/a><\/em>. She writes that \u201c[s]piritual maturation requires . . . embracing those stories that move us toward wholeness while rejecting or reinterpreting those that do harm.\u201d And over the last year or two, I\u2019ve heard additional versions of this approach promoted on multiple podcasts, blogs, and other venues.<\/p>\n

As should be apparent, this approach to interpretation is very far from anything resembling traditional exegesis. What is understood as authoritative is not interpretive tradition, the plain meaning of the text, or the overarching message of Scripture: what is understood as authoritative is any given individual\u2019s classification of a given principle as \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad.\u201d The hermeneutic of harm is, in a very real sense, the fullest flowering of Christian Smith\u2019s \u201cmoralistic therapeutic deism.\u201d (It also likely goes hand-in-hand with various trends on university campuses, which Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt ably discuss in their recent book\u00a0The Coddling of the American Mind<\/a><\/em>.)<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John goes on to analyze what is wrong with this approach.<\/p>\n

What strikes me is that the hermeneutic of harm argues BACKWARDS, not from Scripture but to Scripture.\u00a0 Normally, a Christian would figure out what the Bible says about a topic, and then let that teaching determine the Christian\u2019s position on that topic.\u00a0 The hermeneutic of harm begins with the position, then goes back to the Bible to construct a tortuous reading that supports that position.<\/p>\n

This would seem to be the opposite<\/em> of accepting the Bible\u2019s authority.\u00a0 It imposes one\u2019s own authority, along with the authority of current cultural trends, onto the Bible.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo via Pixabay, CC0, Creative Commons<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some churches teach that gay marriage, abortion, and other violations of traditional morality are not wrong at all.\u00a0 One might wonder, how can they do that?\u00a0 Certainly, non-Christians and churches that are so liberal that they don\u2019t believe in the authority of the Bible at all don\u2019t have a problem with making up their own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":37536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11,44],"tags":[7665,2791,7656,7662,1290,7659],"class_list":["post-37527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-church","category-technology","tag-authority-of-scripture","tag-biblical-interpretation","tag-hermeneutic-of-harm","tag-homosexuality-and-the-bible","tag-liberal-theology","tag-progressive-evangelicals"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Hermeneutic of Harm<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One way liberal theologians are getting around the teachings of the Bible is to reason that since it teaches only what is good, applications that are "harmful" cannot be correct. 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