Following the Bible
Submitted by Heather on August 05 1999 at 13:18:18
In reply to Re: Polygamy's also in the Bible :) Submitted by Oliver on August 05 1999 at 01:02:13
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"CS Lewis was writing to an audience where change is given over one generation to the next, I wonder what he would say to an audience who changes anually, in views, knowlege, morality, and understanding." Here's the passage I didn't quote, which comes immediately after the passage I did: ". . . I therefore regard the great relaxation and simplifying of the rule which has taken place in my own lifetime as a good thing. At its present stage, however, it has this inconvenience, that people of different ages and different types do not all acknowledge the same standard, and we hardly know where we are. While this confusion lasts I think that old, or old-fashioned, people should be very careful not to assume that young or 'emancipated' people are corrupt whenever they are (by the old standard) improper; and, in return, that young people should not call their elders prudes or puritans because they do not easily adopt the new standard. A real desire to believe all the good you can of others and to make others as comfortable as you can will solve most of the problems." Judith Martin (Miss Manners) also has a great deal of the subject (I consider her one of the great secular ethicists of our time): she talks about the difficulty of trying to break away from societal standards that are just plain wrong without doing so in such a way as to offend people. In some cases, it's impossible to avoid offence; the desegregationists had to offend their neighbors by quietly breaking the laws. I think that Lewis is right, though, in believing that one must, whenever protesting against societal standards, demonstrate love toward the opposition, even if one feels called upon to violate their rules of propriety. So you see, you and I are in agreement. :) I wasn't trying to argue in my last post that people shouldn't break away from societal standards – my anecdote about the bra should have alerted you to that – but only that it's a painful process that should be undertaken with due consideration of the dangers and with charity toward one's opponents. I was also cautioning about the dangers of bringing into one's protest children who may be too young to realize that they are being encouraged to break societal standards (though this didn't keep Martin Luther King from using children in his protests, and to great effectiveness). I'm not sure, though, that the Bible is meant to be used as a rule of propriety – that is, I don't think its authors intended it to be a textbook for how to react if a male kisses a male. If it were intended as a rule of propriety, then I think we'd all have to become Orthodox Jews and adhere to the rules of propriety listed in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy: "He who blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him; the sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death." --Leviticus 24:16 "Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one having a discharge, and every one that is unclean through contact with the dead; you shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in midst of which I dwell." --Numbers 5:2-3 "Speak to the people of Israel, and bid them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put upon the tassel of each corner a cord of blue; and it shall be to you a tassel to look upon and remember all the commandments of the Lord . . ." --Numbers 15:37-39 (note that there's no time limit on this rule; that's why Orthodox Jews wear tassels to this day) "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother . . . Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel shall hear, and fear." --Deuteronomy 21:18,21 "No bastard shall enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord." --Deuteronomy 23:2 And here's my favorite passage for this who wish to follow the Bible's rules of propriety: :) "You shall have a place outside the camp and you shall go out to it; and you shall have a stick with your weapons; and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it, and turn back and cover up your excrement. Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to save you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, that he may not see anything indecent among you, and turn away from you." The New Testament offers similar problems – I break Paul's rules of propriety every time I go to church without a veil over my hair. Now, obviously the solution to this isn't to say that the Bible is out of date; rather, the difficult task must be to figure out what virtues and vices are being encouraged or discouraged through particular societal rules – the way Lewis distinguishes, for example, between rules of propriety (which change between different societies) and virtues (which do not). Similarly, Judith Martin distinguishes between manners (which change between different societies) and etiquette (the basic principles underlying the manners, which do not change). In doing so, one may conclude that the rules of propriety followed in one's society (or in past societies) offend against the virtues which they are meant to represent – I may feel, for example, that the rule requiring me to wear a veil or a bra is not the best way for women to show humility or modesty, and you may feel that the rule against strong physical affection between male friends inhibits males in our society from expressing their feelings of love toward each other (and I would agree with you). It always helps, though, to start by asking why those rules were developed, in order to avoid the possibility of condemning a practice which may, in its essence, adhere more closely to the virtues that the Bible encourages than did the rules of propriety in biblical times. Heather |