Wednesday, June 12, 2002
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Wednesday, June 12, 2002 |
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Saying grace publicly is unbiblical? There's a danger to excessive literalism [The] Rev. John Hatcher demonstrates a relatively shallow view of the Bible in his citation of Christ's admonition not to pray on street corners to justify his opinion that grace ought not be said in public. When Jesus was commenting on this issue, his point was not that one should never pray in public. Indeed, if we took His words literally, no prayer would be acceptable except for those done in the corner of your own room. No. Jesus was trying to explain that prayer done for the sake of self-gratification and aggrandizement is wrong. It is similar to his hyperbolic statement of "Call no man Father." Often, critics will take this quotation out of context as justification for condemning the Catholic practice of calling their priests "Father." But if one were to take the statement literally, we couldn't call our own fathers "father" as well. Again, Christ was making a point. He was condemning those rabbis or religious leaders who put too much stock in their titles, while ignoring the true meaning and responsibilities associated with it. The Bible is difficult to interpret. It is dubious and even dangerous to take a single sentence or phrase and base a doctrine or belief on them. The words of the Bible must be considered not only in their immediate context, but also in relationship to the rest of the Bible in order to avoid contradictions and to reach the deeper meaning. It is also important to avoid excessive literalism. Christ often used metaphor, simile, and hyperbole to make a point. His favorite teaching method was the parable, which contained, for the most part, entirely fictional characters and places. Yet no one would take these things to be historically and literally true. If we did, there would be a lot of people walking around missing various body parts (e.g., "If your eye makes you sin, tear it out"). One needs to keep such things in mind when thinking about Christian faith and practice. This is not an easy process and this is also why it is so unwise to rely on the interpretations of any one person. There's nothing to guarantee that he or she is getting it slightly, if not completely, wrong. This again brings up the issue of authority. Who can we trust to provide us with accurate, reliable interpretation? Catholics would say it is the Church, speaking in "perpetual consensus" on important matters of faith for 2000 years. And as far as I know, the Catholic Church allows its members to say grace in public, even to make the sign of the cross, but doesn't require it. Trey Hoffman Sharpsburg
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