One of our members recently advised another member that those who read the bible own one already, can read it for themselves, and don't need to have it quoted a verse at a time here. The original poster claimed that he was seeking discussion, and (implicitly) that he made the posts of verses that had meaning to him and about which he wished to stimulate additional discussion. He's been doing this for a while, and there hasn't been any discussion generated by the previous posts, but i suppose he's hoping that will change so he keeps at it. I wish him luck.... BUT...
He isn't going to get his desired result. After a year here, i have a pretty good sense of how the site operates, even as the specific membership fluctuates. But before i go on, i'll save myself some needless drama by making the following statement explicitly:
I do not now, and nor have i EVER, had or expressed any desire to stop people from posting Bible verses here at the ULC... in spite of charges to the contrary from the reading-comprehension-challenged. I still remember the drama that ensued when my comment that "if you post just a verse, but without any further discussion, nobody knows what you think the passage means, and therefore nobody feels any reason to comment in return" was taken to mean "radar is saying people shouldn't be allowed to post bible verses here" by a subset of the Christians here who appear to me to have a sincere martyr complex. *I* have read the bible already. I don't need anyone posting passages from it for me to be aware of them, i PERSONALLY find the quote-only passages from a book i have already read multiple times in multiple translations to add no new value to MY life, but i DO NOT, and HAVE NEVER objected to those who do so.
OK, that was probably pointless, as those who NEED to take offense will still do so, but i've done what i can...
Now, back to it...
The bible is a book that means many different things to many different people. I'm aware that every Christian sect claims it has the 'true reading', but that's just it... EVERY sect makes that claim, and there are literally thousands of them. If it TRULY had a single, unambiguous meaning, there would be only one flavor of Christianity. For that matter, you won't find too many rabbis who agree with the interpretation of THEIR sacred texts as promoted by Christians who interpret the entire OT as talking about Jesus, and you won't find too many imams who agree with the Christian interpretation of the passages thay also inlude in the Koran, but as we have few Jewish or Moslem members, this is mostly a Christian-specific issue here.
Most lay Christians attend the bible-study courses offered by their denomination, to ensure that they adopt the view of each verse that is orthodox for their specific denomination. Tell me which specific sect you belong to, and i can pretty much tell you what YOU think any specific verse means.
Those who have accepted some specific meaning are pretty much locked into that view as long as they are in that denomination. If someone else agrees, they can say "me, too", but as that's a ridiculed practice on the net, most don't bother. Those who disagree could state so, but my personal experience has been that when a person posts a bible verse, though they claim to want discussion, in actual practice they don't want anything but 100% agreement ... and will frequently become hostile if they don't get it. For that matter, since there's no OBJECTIVELY OFFICIAL interpretation and no agreed upon deciding authority, once two Christians who interpret a passage DIFFERENTLY have said their piece on it, there's no more to say there either.
I've been trained over the last year to understand these things, and to not waste MY time trying to have a discussion with a person who is really just looking for someone to echo her/his sentiments in spite of their claim to want 'discussion'. I can't be the only one here perceptive enough to have figured that out. There are VERY few forums/groups at the ULC where any real substantive discussions occur, for the simple reason (IMO) that the majority of the active participants on this site are sure of their own beliefs (or why would they have decided to take the step to be a minister?), and not particularly interested in hearing what anyone else thinks when it doesn't agree. That leaves the only replies which won't generate needless drama to "i agree", which is kind of pointless.
I'm an atheist, as most here know, so my input would be vastly different than that of a believer anyway, and probably of NO interest to someone who centers her/his moral/ethical life on the bible. I can comment on the historical life of various passages/books of the bible. I can discuss what people have thought about those verses over the millennia, etc. etc., but for ME it's just another book, it's filled with inconsistencies, and its content is MOSTLY misinterpreted and spun by those who are devoted to it to mean things it doesn't actually say. That's not something most believers want to hear... or even want to CONSIDER... and i understand/respect that so i don't see any point in me commenting against the post of a believer, except the times that the posted verse contains some of what *i* see as good advice, and in those cases my "me, too" is as useless as that reply from anyone else.
