My first class in my continuing education has begun; Ethics in Communications. I should be reading my book. I’m in Chapter One, Page … Two, but I have to share. I came across this editorial comment from the ‘Quill’.  Through this comment something I have been grappling with in my faith came jumping out at me. Here is the comment as is:

Ethical judgments are like that. No matter who makes them, they are seldom easy, and they are almost certain to strike some of us as perfectly proper while others regard them as wrongheaded, stupid, unfair, and possibly – as evidence of intellectual and/or moral decay.

All of which is a wonderful thing. Differing definitions of ethical behavior help keep our minds awake and our spirits inflamed. If everyone agreed on all ethical principles, life might be more orderly, but it surely would be more boring.

As I read this I found myself re-reading but replacing ‘Ethical Judgments’ with ‘Biblical Interpretations’. Read it again, and see if it strikes you as it does me.

Biblical interpretations are like that. No matter who makes them, they are seldom easy, and they are almost certain to strike some of us as perfectly proper while others regard them as wrongheaded, stupid, unfair, and possibly – as evidence of intellectual and/or religious decay.

All of which is a wonderful thing. Differing interpretations of the Bible help keep our minds awake and [The Spirit] inflamed. If everyone agreed on all Biblical Interpretations, life might be more orderly, but it surely would be more boring.

I enjoy the conversation that possible biblical interpretations bring to the table of our Christian community, and it continues to boggle my mind when people push this notion away.  Pushing back with assumptions that what they have always been taught must be right.  Easily disregarding someone with something valid to say as a heresy.  Or questioning how ‘questions’ within the faith, within the Word, can be healthy?

Do we not say our kids as they are growing up, ‘There are no wrong questions, only wrong answers’?  When a child asks questions unrelenting about everything they see, feel, hear, or touch don’t we say, ‘That is a sign of intelligence.’?  And is it not Jesus who says, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”?

I think the more childlike we can be in our faith the closer we are to walking with Christ.  And children . . . . well, they question stuff.