Even though I'm no longer Christian, I still try to read and be familiar with the Bible. I've found that some of stories bother me...mostly in terms of "Hey, that's not fair!" I think that most people struggle with the story of Job, but what are some other stories that affected you that way?
For the non-Christian members, did this discomfort with the Bible contribute to you moving away from a JCI path? For the Christian members, how do you incorporate this discomfort as part of your faith?
One story that has always bothered me was the story of the prodigal son. It didn't bother me so much that the father accepted the wayward son back into the family. What did bother me was that the other son had stayed and dutifully served the father for all those years and had been promised the remaining birthright. Then, as soon as his slacker brother comes straggling back, the dutiful son loses everything all over again.
Personally, stories like this did not influence my move away from Christianity. It never really bothered me that everything in the Bible did not line up with my personal ethics. But I never saw the Bible as being dictated verbatim by God, either.
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