Pastor’s Pet Peeve #1: Anti-Old Testament

Below is the first video in a series on my Facebook page called Pastor’s Pet Peeves.* 

I’m concerned about a growing anti-Old Testament movement on Facebook. I’m seeing this even on Progressive Christian pages. Many people claim that the Old Testament portrays a tribal God who only cares about God’s people Israel. And so thank God for Jesus and the New Testament for moving beyond such a horrible god. This view is formed from a misunderstanding of the Old Testament. And, unfortunately, this anti-Old Testament view can lead people to be anti-Judaic.

Christian history has scapegoated Judaism and the Old Testament for long enough. It is time we stop.

The Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, or better yet, the Tanakh,** is not a book about a tribal God. Sure, the Bible was written during a time when particular groups of people thought that they were more special than anyone else. And, you know, I’m so glad we moderns don’t think like that anymore … America first and all …

For Jews, Christians, and Muslims, our common story is rooted in the call of Abraham and Sarah. The story of their call is in Genesis 12. They were called to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. They were not called to keep their blessings to themselves. Rather, Abraham and Sarah received God’s blessing so that they could imitate the God who blessed them by sharing God’s blessing with all the families of the earth.

All. The. Families.

The foundational story of the Old Testament is not tribal at all. In fact, it subverts any tribalistic view found in the Bible with the message that we are to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. So, please, let’s stop denigrating the Old Testament by accusing it of being tribalistic. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the Old Testament for moving humanity beyond a tribalistic mentality.

*These are not pet peeves I have as a pastor of my church, Clackamas United Church of Christ, near Portland, Oregon. These are pet peeves that I have from what I see on Facebook. 

**Some might claim the title “Old Testament” is denigrating. We could call it the Hebrew Bible. Or we could call it the Tanakh. But the book that Christians use isn’t the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh because Christians place the books of the Bible in a much different order than our Jewish friends do. I talked with a Rabbi about this dilemma many years ago. She told me to just call it the Old Testament. So, that’s what I’ve done here. 

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