The practice of persecuting others using religion as justification has been around for many generations. When it comes to the orthodox Christian community, the usual targets are those who aren’t heterosexual, have premarital sex, marry outside the community, etc. etc. In this context, religion appears to justify the isolation of such people from society (even dehumanising them to a certain degree). The argument for this socially condoned bullying is largely based on the perception of moral codes outlined in the Bible as being the objective, fundamental truth.
But is this really the case?
If we take a look at the historical development of Western morality – since Christianity is a Western religion I will refer to Western morality for the purpose of this argument – we notice that the moral fundamentals, from gender roles to familial conduct, dress codes and more, consistently evolved with time. And yet, the Bible remains a constant. This begs the question – if Biblical morality really was the ‘objective eternal truth’, then how has it facilitated so much change?
There are two reasons for this: the first is that the Bible is not an objective entity. It was written in a very different time, and was also a reflection of the society of that time. There are many rules in the Bible that would sound ridiculous in our modern world. For example, according to the Bible, if you are a woman you have no right to speak in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:34-35). This has not been the case for hundreds of years.
I have noticed that some orthodox Christians make the mistake of taking the more subjective guidelines in the Bible out of context and assuming them to be objective truths. One of my schoolteachers did not allow me to read the Harry Potter series in school because the Bible says you ‘must not practice magic’ (even though the series is set in a fictional universe with dragons, mermaids and flying cars).
The second reason for the Bible facilitating hundreds of years of moral evolution is that it is open to interpretation.The Bible holds a large number of moral codes of conduct. How do you separate the essential morals from the irrelevant ones? The answer is, you don’t. The key shapers of Christian morality have always been religious leaders, who interpret the Bible in relation to popular social practices of the time. The fact that these leaders are also members of society implies that their interpretation will never be truly objective. However, the Bible has always been presented as the objective truth, and those being taught from it were always told never to question (a strategy still employed today).
One of my favourite examples of the subjective nature of Biblical morality is in Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer. A character called the ‘Wife of Bath’ proudly defies 14thcentury (i.e. Medieval) conceptions of Biblical morality, using the same Bible to justify herself.
The Wife of Bath had five consecutive marriages, which was highly scandalous for those times (I assume it must be like the general orthodox perspective on having multiple sexual partners at once in today’s world), and society deemed her highly blasphemous.
Undeterred, she marches into the Church wearing red (the colour that signified both promiscuity and the Devil himself) and justifies her lifestyle as follows (paraphrased):
- God has instructed us to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 9:7), which is exactly what she is doing
- Marriage is no sin, and as Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:9, it is better to marry than to burn (with desire)
- Apostle Paul advised a woman to be a virgin, but advice is not a commandment
The Wife of Bath essentially used the Bible to justify a life of sex with multiple partners (in which she owned her narrative by feeling pleasure and asserting her biological needs instead of simply being a passive vessel for the man), and completely dismiss the societal pedestalization of virginity.
If the Bible can be so easily interpreted to condone such a drastically different lifestyle, then where does that leave us in our understanding of morality?
The answer lies within the Bible itself. While most of the text can be categorised as subjective and contextual, there are a few codes of conduct that are truly considered objective and eternal. They are the Ten Commandments.
However, sometimes people who break one of the Ten Commandments are still more accepted in the community than those who do not adhere to a subjective guideline that society interprets as a priority (ex: premarital sex. There is no commandment against it and yet society perceives it as one of the worst possible sins that will immediately condemn you to hell). This sheds some light on the truth of our Christian morals – our morality is not dictated by the Bible, but by society. The Bible is used as a means to justify our preferred moral code, just as in the case of the Wife of Bath.
I will not comment on whether this is good or bad, but I will conclude with a reminder of the role of Jesus Christ in all of this. To the orthodox community of his time, he was considered worthy of persecution because he broke many of the fundamental rules, including a commandment (do not work on the Sabbath). Jesus chose to heal a man even though it was the Sabbath day (commonly acknowledged as Sunday), thereby creating a filter for our moral code that previously did not exist – humanitarianism. Caring for your fellow human was more important than following ritualistic moral practices. Another example of this was the incident wherein a woman who committed adultery was about to be stoned to death, when Jesus intervened and said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7) But in doing so he defied the societal norm of the time.
Before we pass judgement on those who seem un-Christian today, it is important to remember that Jesus Christ himself was condemned to crucifixion by those who considered themselves to be righteous Jews.
Morality is not as objective as it is generally perceived. It is dynamic, changing with time, shaped not by religion alone, but by the evolution of humanity itself.
What a unique perspective. This was a breath of fresh air. I’m glad you mentioned Jesus in the end as, in reality it all boils down to HIM.
Godspeed Ms. Matthews.
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