themattscott

“It’s a relationship, not a religion.” Said Jess, both without any hint of irony and perhaps slightly more enthusiastically than was necessary.

“Some relationship.” responded Tom offhandedly. “I mean, think about it for a second,” he continued, focusing more, “you can’t even hold a decent conversation with the guy. Seems like a lot of one way talking going on, a lotta give and no take.”

“You don’t get it, He responds!.”

“How then, tell me how a ‘he responds’.” Tom said, throwing air quotes around the last two words.

“You know, through the Bible and stuff”

“Oh, is it the Bible and stuff? What other stuff exactly?”

There was a pause in the conversation, the espresso machine was working loudly in the background and, for a moment, the bustle of the coffee shop over took the thoughts of both. “You know, like the gentle leadings and stuff.” Jess finally managed after some thought.

“The gentle leadings? What gentle leadings have you had?”

“Ya know, that God has a plan for my life, where I should go to school or who I should marry. The nudges in the ‘right’ direction. To stay within his plan, ya know?”

“That’s all well and good, bro, but what if you got some… what did you call them? ‘Gentle Leadings’ that went against the whole Bible thing?”

“God wouldn’t do that, you know, the Bible is unchanging, it’s forever. Eternal and stuff, ya know?”

“Ok, so you’re not open to the idea that maybe God can change his mind? I mean, that doesn’t sound like you’re in a very balanced relationship. One side not open to the other side changing and all, no, it sounds more like a religion to me.”

“No, Tom, you just don’t get it, God wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t go against Himself, the Bible says he’s eternally unchanging.”

“There you go man, closing the door on the idea of God actually changing his mind every once in a while.”

“No man, he wrote the Bible, ya know? Divine inspiration and stuff, he wouldn’t go against Himself like that.”

“You’re getting very hard to argue with, you’re acting almost… religiously in your insistence that God won’t change, or won’t say something that’s different than the Bible.” Tom said, becoming increasingly irritated.

“I’m not being religious, I’m just saying what God told me.”

“In the Bible right? Because that’s apparently all that matters, what the ‘Bible says’, not really what God could possibly say outside the Bible or anything, because he wouldn’t possibly say anything different.”

“You’re missing the point! He can talk through other outlets, we just have to judge it on based on what we know about the Bible!” Cried the now perplexed and annoyed Jess.

“Ok, ok, I get it. From now on, I am going to interpret everything you say to me through the lens of Catcher in the Rye, and I won’t do so religiously or anything, but I want you to know that you’re a phony, a big fat faker!”

“I give up.” sighed Jess.

“Now you know how I feel.” said Tom.

This entry was posted Saturday, September 5th, 2009 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Bible, religion. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.