Whose Bible is It?

Growing up in church, I collected a number of Bibles by my teenage years. There were many Bibles in our house, and to distinguish my scripture from those of my parents or brother, I would write my name on the inside cover or one of the pages thereafter.

College, seminary and some years of ministry passed before I fully realized the inadvertent symbolism of the now-worn Bibles bearing my name: scripture is molded by individual believers, whether consciously or not. The reader, in short, becomes the owner of the text.

The manner in which one speaks of scripture offers a glimpse into one’s soul. Depending upon one’s personal taste, agenda and/or biases, the Bible can morph into a capitalistic manual, twist and turn to deflect inconvenient scientific truths, sanctify hatred of immigrants, subjugate women, justify war … or “prove” any of thousands of other possible desired personal preferences. Far too often, historically, personal agendas and prejudices have been packaged into councils, creeds and mandates, wrapped in a veneer of infallibility, and used as holy tools to force others into submission.

At the same time, others speak of the Bible and draw forth from scripture themes such as love, mercy, peace, kindness, gentleness, freedom and human dignity. Councils and creeds have never been able to codify these dimensions of salvation that intersect the human soul, for absorbing personal ownership of scripture in such a manner transcends doctrinal formulations and inherently threatens self-serving religious institutions.

Many of us own the Bible in both dimensions: at times we force scripture to reflect our personal prejudices or desires, and in other instances we permit it to feed the “better angels of our nature.”

The American Civil War is a case study in biblical ownership. White Baptists of the South designed a Bible to justify southern culture and society: their Bible enslaved Blacks in perpetuity, enshrined white supremacy, glorified (selective) biblical literalism, and sanctified the Confederacy as God’s kingdom on earth. Meanwhile, northern Baptists increasingly fashioned a Bible that advocated freedom and equality for all humans, located millennial hope in a gospel of social morality and human upliftment, and rejected literalistic scriptural interpretations that ran counter to the concept of the equality of persons.

So, whose Bible is it?

As we celebrate this Thanksgiving season, we can be thankful that the scriptures, the story of God’s redemptive love for humanity, are for everyone. Yet being thankful is only the first step. Daring to confront our own theological, social and cultural prejudices and biases projected into scripture is a sign that we are truly thankful for the Bible, while opening up the possibility of being transformed by the working of the Spirit.