Lately I’ve been reading a lot about what people think are their Constitutional rights. The Constitution seems to have taken on all the adoration, popularity, and God-like status of the Bible. While this seems like a good thing, the problem is that along with the adoration of both documents people unfortunately have equal understanding. And by that…I mean very little.
One of the first things I learned in college was to read. I don’t mean read as in “See Spot run.” I mean read for understanding. In reality after six years of undergrad, and graduate school, the class I learned the most in was a first year English course. The professor had a passion for reading for understanding. While that seems like something obvious, it doesn’t seem to be a reality in practice.
Most people read things at face value. They don’t bother trying to understand the background, experiences, religion, education, social values, race, gender, or agenda behind the author of what they are reading. Even with what you’re reading now, make no mistake, I have an agenda. I also have experiences which drive my ideas and attitudes about what I write. Right now, part of my agenda is to obviously educate my reader, but I also have other agendas as well. In fact, I even have agendas of which I myself am not aware. In short, it is very difficult to hide who you are in what you write. Unfortunately, however, it’s easy to ignore my values for your own.
Most people bring so much of their own prejudices and practices to what they read that they fail to understand the message that is being presented. You have to take an active part in reading to truly appreciate the exercise. While there is a time and place to bring yourself to a text when you read it, sometimes you’re better off understanding your author so you have a better idea of why he writes, or believes the things he’s presenting. I think that’s something that is lost today. We have a total lack of appreciation for the ideas of others. For someone to disagree with you does not make them stupid. It just makes them different. Differences are not a sin. At least I never read that in the Bible.
Another thing to keep in mind when reading something is context. Context is extremely important. In this case I mean an understanding of the environment in which something was written. What were, or are, the political, social, economic, and philosophical standards of the day? Who is my author? Are they traitors who just committed treason by separating from their legal government? Or are they brave, and thoughtful heroes who just won a war against an oppressive King? Are they a Jewish carpenter who decided, with 12 close friends, to start a political movement? Or are they a group of people who, over thousands of years, wrote about the people and experiences of a lost time in history? These are very important things to consider when you read. Do these things take away from what you’re reading, or add to them? I guess that all depends on your own political, religious, social, and economic views.
We recently had a horrible shooting here in Colorado. Twelve people died, and 59 were injured almost instantly at the hands of a madman. Our founding fathers never saw this as an issue. They never wrote the Constitution thinking that someday, a jackass would walk into a movie theater and fire a weapon at families, and children. They could not possibly have imagined any scenario in the 18th century which would have required laws to prevent such an act. Does that mean we shouldn’t have them? Of course not. But it does mean that quoting something written by a man in 1785 as political gospel, is probably not the best argument for your case.
Which brings up why I think that using a book, written 2000 years ago, by people who thought the world was flat, and stars were angels, probably isn’t the best source for supporting your views. Does that mean I do not hold said text to be important, or even sacred? No it does not. There are many good lessons to be learned. However, you have to read them in the context in which they were written. To adopt all their values as our own would mean returning to a time when most people died prior to age 20. The idea of cutting into the body to heal rather than kill would be so completely foreign to them that their reaction would most likely be your execution.
Our founding fathers were brilliant and thoughtful men. They were also slave owners, and traitors to their government. To deny the later, is to diminish the former. We are all damaged. Yet just like with writing, to truly love and understand each other, we have to accept everything about ourselves. Also, I understand the argument that God is infallible, and as such, the Bible being the word of God is equally infallible. However, we are only as good as the tools we use. And the Bible was written by man, not by God. Therefore, much the same way as hammering a nail with a screwdriver when you need a hammer won’t build you a house, God used man as his instrument for writing, when he needed a lightning bolt to send us a message. Remember…you are only as good as the tools you use.
And man is definitely a tool.