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Oct 31, 2019
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According to the Bible, only those people who repent from sin and ask God for forgiveness will receive eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus. In obedience to this standard Christian obligation, the church hierarchy routinely encourages its congregation to seek divine forgiveness for their sinful thoughts and behaviors. In order to facilitate this pastoral objective, modern theologians consult the scriptures and church history to help them identify precisely which thoughts and behaviors qualify as sin. For the most part, relevant scriptures in the Biblical texts have historically provided Christians with satisfactory guidance in this regard. Unfortunately, though, some of the critical words and phrases which define and describe a small minority of these divine proclamations written in the earliest and best Biblical manuscripts do not precisely translate into modern languages.

To further complicate matters, it is impossible to know if the traditionally accepted interpretations of these contested scriptures reliably reflects their originally intended meaning since Christianity evolved from an amalgamation of various competing theological perspectives. In fact, Orthodox Christianity did not reach its present form until sometime between the 3rd and 8th century while Protestantism did not emerge until the 16th century. Nevertheless, each existing Christian denomination has elected to affirm its own theological perspective over all others in order to establish official doctrines. Ironically, what has emerged from this pious effort to guide Christians away from various sins and towards a single infallible God are seemingly incompatible sets of fallible yet non-negotiable church doctrines.

With the establishment of an official doctrine, a church congregation may only be exposed to a single theological perspective on any given issue to the exclusion of many equally plausible alternative theological perspectives. Consequently, the average Christian views pastoral guidance from their church leadership as prescribed law rather than a subjective interpretation of the law. In many instances, average Christians are unaware that diverse interpretations of contested scriptures are available for their consideration. Whether it is deliberate or unintentional, minimizing or restricting the availability of diverse theological interpretations in this way helps church leaders maintain control of the prevailing perspective held by the congregation.

Occasionally, an issue emerges that is divisive enough to cause a significant number of Christians to risk challenging established church doctrine. For these Christians, it is no longer a simple choice between obeying or disobeying God as the church might have them believe. Instead, many of these frustrated Christians find themselves having to contend with several choices; each choice claiming obedience to the true will of God. Of course, Christians on all sides of these debates will articulate logical arguments and point to Biblical support for why their particular interpretation of the scriptures should define church doctrine more than any alternative interpretation. What they all fail to understand, though, is that an ability to demonstrate a theological justification for one interpretation does nothing to disprove any of the competing theological interpretations.

When faced with various unfalsifiable interpretations of Biblical texts, theologians have no objective standard by which to mitigate for confirmation bias or other conscious and subconscious prejudices which may influence personal preference for one perspective over another. The historic consequence of this impasse has been the fragmentation of Christianity into thousands of competing denominations. Even within a single Christian denomination, unresolvable doctrinal disputes continue to divide the church’s congregation. In fact, some critics have argued that the Bible’s ability to justify almost any theological perspective has produced as many versions of Christianity as there are Christians.

A potential compromise could be achieved by adopting a “Doctrine of Theological Diversity and Inclusion” that reveals rather than conceals plausible alternative interpretations of contested scriptures. To imagine the functionality of this, consider how diversity and inclusion (D&I) awareness programs in the workplace contribute to increased employee satisfaction, improved productivity, and above average employee retention. For instance, if two diverse groups of employees each submit an equally viable proposal for achieving a shared goal, their creativity is rewarded when the leadership permits each proposal to proceed rather than arbitrarily demanding the implementation of just one of the proposals. In other words, the leadership assumes an agnostic position towards each viable proposal since they have no way to justify choosing one over the other. As a result, employees from both groups are willing to contribute more innovative ideas when their diversity of thought is not discouraged in the workplace. More importantly, inclusive workplaces that welcome diverse perspectives exceed their competition in recruiting the most qualified and talented employees which leads to even more innovation.

The Christian church would equally benefit from D&I awareness by soliciting various theological perspectives and openly disclosing where contested scriptures have multiple plausible interpretations. Adopting a doctrine of theological D&I will better position the church to facilitate compromise by remaining agnostic in situations where Biblical guidance is ambiguous rather than arbitrarily enforcing a single interpretation. Instead of feeling compelled to dictate which interpretations of scripture are authorized, the church leadership may simply encourage their congregation to seek direct revelatory guidance from the Holy Spirit. After all, if Christianity is true, the burden of directing people towards the proper interpretation of difficult scriptures should resides with the Holy Spirit and not with fallible theologians. As such, the Christian theologian’s responsibility should not necessarily be to speak for God but merely to facilitate someone’s introduction to the Holy Spirit as the mechanism by which God may speak for himself.

A doctrine of theological D&I compels theologians to have faith that God will guide each unique Christian towards an appropriate interpretation of a difficult scripture regardless of whether it aligns with church tradition or not. In this way, the existence of contradictory interpretations is rendered inconsequential because it may be the case that God does not intend for every Christian to live by the exact same interpretation of an ambiguous Biblical text. Rather than being an unfortunate byproduct from the utilization of fallible human authors to communicate his words, the debatable language which comprise select Bible passages may have been deliberately designed by God to be ambiguous in order to facilitate personalized plans for a diverse population of Christians.

It must be clarified that a doctrine of theological D&I does not restrict theologians from conveying their own personal interpretations of ambiguous scriptures even if the church as a whole assumes an agnostic perspective. To the contrary, a doctrine of theological D&I encourages theologians to communicate their individual perspectives. However, their pastoral obligation would also compel church leaders to disclose plausible alternative interpretations for consideration. Otherwise, a failure to reveal all the theological options could potentially deprive a valued Christian of a Biblical interpretation God intends for that individual.

Furthermore, the church must not abuse its authority by discouraging Christians from accepting an equally plausible interpretation of a contested scripture which does not conform to the majority perspective since there is no objective method for resolving such disputes. Therefore, theologians must resist the compulsion to impose their fallibly biased interpretations of imprecise Biblical texts on a diverse congregation for the sake of establishing or reinforcing arbitrary church doctrines. In fact, such authoritarian practices have been observably and unnecessarily destructive to the Christian community. Instituting a doctrine of theological D&I will help the Christian church to recover from the damages caused by fallible yet non-negotiable doctrines.

In closing, the establishment of a theological D&I doctrine would function to facilitate compromises for almost any internal theological dispute regarding the interpretation of ambiguous scriptures. From arguments over the Theory of Evolution to decisions about Planned Parenthood, a doctrine of theological diversity offers church leaders an ability to satisfy their pastoral obligations in a way that fosters compassion rather than division. As long as the core components of Christianity are maintained, there doesn’t appear to be any logical or theological reason to reject the application of D&I awareness to church doctrine. If Christianity is a relationship and not a religion as many Christians assert, then adopting a doctrine of theological D&I will serve to grow that relationship by encouraging congregants to seek direct revelatory guidance from God. Otherwise, this self-imposed obligation to support non-negotiable but fallible church doctrines will only continue to drive people farther away from a relationship with Jesus.
 

DNB

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What are you promoting, indecisiveness, perpetual ambiguity and perplexity, imprecision from the omniscient God, a smorgasbord of meanings to a single principle? There may as well be polytheism then, if a deity does not mean what he says, and say what he means, or his precepts are just circumstantial or frivolous.
Yes, I agree and am the first to say, that God intended a certain level of cryptology in his Word, but not to confuse or allow a free-for-all of private interpretations, but to separate the boys from the men. One exposes his heart when he is allowed to reveal his discernment and sentiments on a certain issue. i.e. A liar believes that everyone else is lying, because that is what he will do in their position. Controversial issues always create a dichotomy between parties, and there is something very indicative about the characters that take to one side, over the characters who support the other side. i.e. who likes Trump, is it not only the hillbillies and the rich?

This is why the Church is looking for precision in interpretation, i.e. may the wisest man in the room discern and reveal the truth! I understand patience when someone is sincerely in err, but not acceptance of the viewpoint, that is just consequential.
Therefore, we try to reserve interpretation for the studied, sincere and of good character (a clean mind is a sound mind). Yes, there will invariably remain disagreement, dissension and factions, but, this is the test, and many have faithfully died refusing to compromise their beliefs. There is a spiritual warfare that is not only in the arena of behaviour, but in glorifying God through the proper, accurate and precise interpretation of his Will and Word. God is not flaky, he means what he says, and says what he means. Just like any parent that imparts discipline, morals and integrity to their children, there's very little room for compromise and alternative meanings.