so reading genesis is kind of difficult in that i've grown up hearing the creation story, so it's a little easy to just skim over. first day, watery expense, day, night, done. second day water seperates, land's here, done.
so it was all kind of run of the mill until i hit on something i honest to god do not remember ever reading. i am going to look like such an idiot for this, but turns out in the creation story there are two trees. TWO TREES! A tree of life and a tree of knowledge. Crazy. CRAZY. also turns out that the tree of life, i believe, makes a guest appearance in revelation.
a couple of observations: first the bible i'm using has turned out to be perfect for me as its little study guide is relatively progressive (which i am too), essentially folding in that evolution and creationism (or the idea that there is a creator) are not mutually exclusive.
also, and this is what i really appreciated, they emphasize that god created man in his own image. meaning that both genders possess the characteristics of the creator and that neither gender should be held in higher esteem than the other (this likewise applies to different races, etc). thus my title: homogenous genesis- we're pretty much all the same.
one of my favorite, kind of sad parts of the first chapter is when it says the lord was walking through the garden looking for adam and eve, after they've eaten the fruit. this presents such a juxtaposition to that all knowing, all seeing, retributive god that seems to appear shortly thereafter. i remember growing up and thinking how cool that would be, like the supreme being wants to hang out and watch monday night football or something. but it turns out adam and eve already tucked into the buffalo wings. so the big man is betrayed. he's hurt. and retribution must follow.
i also like that this story seems to definitively answers the question of free will. following it we see that god gave adam and eve the choice to hang blissfully in the garden, or to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. i mean, he asked them not to, but the choice was always there.
this is something i feel that i identify with strongly. maybe all of us do. i have some serious, serious vices. food and men are the chief ones. and i kind of always feel like i know what's best, indulging in those vices when i've been warned against them. the parameters are there. i just choose to ignore them. wah, wah.
the hardest part for me to accept, and i think i will always struggle with this, is this idea of satan. satan's there, tempting eve. if i'm being totally honest i have a really hard time believing in satan. that's right, i said it. evil, i can see, i mean you only have to turn on the news to see that there is pure, unaldulturated evil out there (poor jaycee lee duggard and elizabeth smart can provide firsthand accounts). but as for this chief evil being?
i think i grew paranoid because as a child my parents painted this picture of beealzabub (how can you take that name seriously?) tugging at my strings and causing me (and them) to do bad things. as i've grown i just find that harder and harder to believe. but maybe it should actually be easy for me to believe because then i could write off the depravity of man. after all, wouldn't it be nicer to blame satan for the things that happened to jaycee lee and elizabeth smart than beings that are the same species as i am?
homogenous. that's scary.
alright, more later. off to dinner.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
also
two funny things:
one:tonight i'm going to salman rushdie give a reading from an essay about not believing in religion.
also people who read our blog are called "followers." ha!!
one:tonight i'm going to salman rushdie give a reading from an essay about not believing in religion.
also people who read our blog are called "followers." ha!!
in the begining...
there was the blog...
ha ha. so, as libby c. said, this was inspired in part by julie and julia. and in part by me being a heathen! well, both of us really.
libby was raised in a very conservative household, myself slightly less so. although the connotations of "southern baptist theological seminary" raise the hankles on most now, when my parents went there it seems like it was a really chill place. a place wherein the main focus was that christ died for us. emphasis on ALL of us. gay, straight, promiscuous, alcoholics, puritans, vegan, gun-toting, quran-quoting, "jesus paid it all."
over the years it was easy to become really embarassed over my faith. after all, the people who represent it these days aren't cool people like JC and the disciples (though as libby points out, the disciples could kind of be dunderheads...), it's people like Jim Baker (ok, maybe that's a little dated), or people who blow up abortion clinics. so i spent the better part of the past 10 years slowly drifting from what i was told day ONE on this earth. jesus loves me. this i know. :)
a lot of that changed last november when i went to israel. baptists don't ascribe much meaning to relics, and since the locations of events like the crucifix and the last supper are in dispute, it was hard for me to get really excited about those places. but the place where i really felt the lord's presence was on the sea of galilee. (or lake galilee, it's not really a sea) it was one place where i knew, for certain, jesus had spent time on this earth. because of the very nature of water (which goes up to the sky and returns to earth, sound familiar?????) it was very easy to feel close to him in that space.
i'd be lying if i said i didn't feel kind of lame and a little intimidated to start this blog. it's public. people can find it. and even though i'm not about to get a jesus tattoo or whatever, it's kind of the first time i'm actually saying outloud what i know (or think i should know) in my heart.
for libby this is about finding relevance in scripture for her life. that is partly what this blog is about for me. but this is also about actually READING the bible, so that when people try to use it as a weapon against me or against those i love i can actually know what they are talking about. :)
it should also be stated from the outset that i wholeheartedly believe the bible is divinely inspired, but written by man. and speaking as a writer, and an editor, i know what it is like to take "creative license." hopefully throughout this journey i'll see more (through the bible and other books i encounter along the way) of what this means.
ok! i should probably work now, the editor next to me keeps giving me kind of dirty looks.
go team canada!
ha ha. so, as libby c. said, this was inspired in part by julie and julia. and in part by me being a heathen! well, both of us really.
libby was raised in a very conservative household, myself slightly less so. although the connotations of "southern baptist theological seminary" raise the hankles on most now, when my parents went there it seems like it was a really chill place. a place wherein the main focus was that christ died for us. emphasis on ALL of us. gay, straight, promiscuous, alcoholics, puritans, vegan, gun-toting, quran-quoting, "jesus paid it all."
over the years it was easy to become really embarassed over my faith. after all, the people who represent it these days aren't cool people like JC and the disciples (though as libby points out, the disciples could kind of be dunderheads...), it's people like Jim Baker (ok, maybe that's a little dated), or people who blow up abortion clinics. so i spent the better part of the past 10 years slowly drifting from what i was told day ONE on this earth. jesus loves me. this i know. :)
a lot of that changed last november when i went to israel. baptists don't ascribe much meaning to relics, and since the locations of events like the crucifix and the last supper are in dispute, it was hard for me to get really excited about those places. but the place where i really felt the lord's presence was on the sea of galilee. (or lake galilee, it's not really a sea) it was one place where i knew, for certain, jesus had spent time on this earth. because of the very nature of water (which goes up to the sky and returns to earth, sound familiar?????) it was very easy to feel close to him in that space.
i'd be lying if i said i didn't feel kind of lame and a little intimidated to start this blog. it's public. people can find it. and even though i'm not about to get a jesus tattoo or whatever, it's kind of the first time i'm actually saying outloud what i know (or think i should know) in my heart.
for libby this is about finding relevance in scripture for her life. that is partly what this blog is about for me. but this is also about actually READING the bible, so that when people try to use it as a weapon against me or against those i love i can actually know what they are talking about. :)
it should also be stated from the outset that i wholeheartedly believe the bible is divinely inspired, but written by man. and speaking as a writer, and an editor, i know what it is like to take "creative license." hopefully throughout this journey i'll see more (through the bible and other books i encounter along the way) of what this means.
ok! i should probably work now, the editor next to me keeps giving me kind of dirty looks.
go team canada!
Libby's Introduction
Perhaps I should begin with an introduction of myself. I’m Libby Colorado, a 27-year old Christian lesbian.
Let the hate mail begin.
I grew up as a Born Again Christian, and I went to church more times in seventeen years than some adults have in their whole lives. Women in my assembly wear headcoverings (thanks, Paul), and are not allowed to lead worship, singing, or prayer in any way (thanks again, Paul).
Thanks to Julie and Julia, Hillary and I decided to embark upon a spiritual quest of sorts: read the Bible in a year.
Admittedly, I’m starting this biblical adventure in a strange place: not at Genesis, like Hillary, but at Matthew.
I have no desire to read the Bible “in order,” because my purpose in completing this 365 day journey is for my own spiritual awareness. I have no connection to Genesis right now. I need something different.
I need to start with the Gospels.
There is a certain comfort I have in knowing that with Jesus there with them, the disciples still fucked it up. Crass? Yes. True? Yes. Jesus was there, talking with them, explaining to them, reiterating ideas for them, and the Gospels repeatedly state, “But they did not understand.”
It is pleasant to know that even when Jesus was around, people still did not “get it.” I need to focus on those stories. I’m going to post my order later tonight or tomorrow.
We begin on October 1, and we end on September 30, 2010. Here we go.
Let the hate mail begin.
I grew up as a Born Again Christian, and I went to church more times in seventeen years than some adults have in their whole lives. Women in my assembly wear headcoverings (thanks, Paul), and are not allowed to lead worship, singing, or prayer in any way (thanks again, Paul).
Thanks to Julie and Julia, Hillary and I decided to embark upon a spiritual quest of sorts: read the Bible in a year.
Admittedly, I’m starting this biblical adventure in a strange place: not at Genesis, like Hillary, but at Matthew.
I have no desire to read the Bible “in order,” because my purpose in completing this 365 day journey is for my own spiritual awareness. I have no connection to Genesis right now. I need something different.
I need to start with the Gospels.
There is a certain comfort I have in knowing that with Jesus there with them, the disciples still fucked it up. Crass? Yes. True? Yes. Jesus was there, talking with them, explaining to them, reiterating ideas for them, and the Gospels repeatedly state, “But they did not understand.”
It is pleasant to know that even when Jesus was around, people still did not “get it.” I need to focus on those stories. I’m going to post my order later tonight or tomorrow.
We begin on October 1, and we end on September 30, 2010. Here we go.
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