In her book, Thinking About God: An Introduction to Theology, Dorothee Soelle “There is a deep longing in humans to have something which is unchangeable and not hurt by the confusions of history”.1Human beings while embracing change through out history always wanted that one place they can go to that is a “safe” place away from the hustle and bustle of the world. When I think of a “safe” place, what comes to my mind is a man-cave. A place where I could go and not be bothered by the outside world unless I chose it to be. Is it possible for religion to be that “unchanging” place from which we can draw strength.
At times this desire for continuity without change comes into conflict with society and church doctrine. The United Methodist church is going through just such a conflict when it comes to homosexuals in the church. The church openly welcomes homosexual individuals however it has bared practicing homosexuals from becoming clergy in the church. This changed when an openly gay female was appointed as Bishop in the church. While the move was openly welcomed by many in the church, others were very much against it preferring to keep thing the
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The way that Orthodox Christians read and interpret the Bible is far different from how other Christians read and interpret the Bible. “In orthodox thinking the Bible was the 'word of God' without any if's and butts; in the liberal understanding (in terms of method) it is regarded as a book like any other. This change was disquieting for many people”2 It seems to me that the two methods of reading and interpreting the Bible are about as different as possible. I have a hard time taking the inerrancy of the Bible when there seems to be so many places where the Bible contradicts itself. On the other side the Bible being nothing more than a library book seems to go to far in the other direction. The Bible should be that one place where we can go to draw