Sex and the Biblical Scholar

I have long made a point of the hypocrisy and total intellectual dishonesty of fundamental Christians who selectively pick and choose which Bible passages receive "inerrant" treatment and which ones are conveniently ignored and/or flouted daily. Inerrancy is an all or nothing proposition and if fundamentalists had a shred of honesty and integrity, they'd be making huge changes in their own lives (they have on average the highest divorce rate, highest unwed pregnancy rate, and lowest educational levels) as opposed to worrying about the sexual activities of others. Now a noted Biblical scholar, Michael Coogan, has a new book out that takes the "one from column A and one from column B" fundamentalists to task. The Guardian has a book review and here are some highlights:
*
Michael Coogan is one of America’s foremost biblical scholars, and the problem with his elegant little book is that Christian fundamentalists are simply going to ignore it. The fact that he went to Harvard is not likely to endear him to the Sarah Palins of this world , and while he wears his learning lightly, having any learning at all is an automatic black mark in large swaths of the hinterland.
*
For his part, Coogan makes it very clear that he has grown weary of turning the other cheek. His message to other biblical scholars is that they should take the battle to the enemy, the enemy being the “amateurs, the hyperpious and crazies” who would impose their understanding of the Bible on the rest of us.
*
What makes Coogan’s critique so devastating is that he knows the Bible inside out – not just its many books, but also all the other books that for one reason or another never made it into the canon. Add to this his complete mastery of the languages in which the Bible was written and you start to appreciate that most of what passes for exegesis is simply cherry-picking, if not outright wishful thinking. Marriage is perhaps the best example.
*
A very strong case (Coogan’s) can be made for saying that what the Bible actually teaches is that marriage is the union of one man and an indefinite number of women. Lamech had two wives. Abraham had three, Jacob four, and his brother Esau five. Nobody knows how many wives Gideon had, but between them they are supposed to have produced 70 sons.
*
Coogan’s point is a basic one: If you are a Christian fundamentalist and believe that every word of the Bible is literally true, you don’t get to pick and choose.
*
Coogan’s advice is that you ask yourself: What would Jesus do? This puts it too crudely, for he never actually uses the phrase, but as much is implied when he urges the reader to be guided by the spirit rather than the letter of the Bible. Or as Coogan himself puts it, “How – and even if – a particular text speaks to an individual or community in the present must be determined by testing it with the touchstone of fair and equal treatment of the neighbour, as seen in the strikingly similar sayings of Hillel [the Elder] and Jesus.”
*
A century and a half later, and we’re still using the Bible to argue the pros and cons of basic human rights. But Michael Coogan’s excellent book is a reminder that the Bible cuts both ways, and that in the right hands it might once again become a force for positive social change.