First of all, let it be noted that Junior High youth have no real capacity to understand what it means to be biblical or not biblical. That is an absurdity. The teachings of scripture are complex, profound, subtle, metaphorical, poetic. They are often in need of historical, literary, social, and anthropological contextualization before they can be fully understood. Passages are often contradictory in ways that require the delicate balancing of one fundamental principle with another. Different theologies emerge in the readings of the various authors of scripture. Translations and transliterations have evolved over the years in ways that reflect certain biases, and sifting through those can take years of etymological, grammatical, and syntactical study.

I have spent 14 years in seminary. I have a Bachelors degree in Philosophy, a Masters of Divinity Degree, and a Doctoral degree in Ministry. I have studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. I have taken probably close to a hundred courses in scripture, and read close to a thousand books on the Bible. And I still don't feel I have enough information to call myself an expert on the subject. Like Tevya in "Fiddler on the Roof," I dream of being a rich man so that I can live my days out in the Temple arguing scripture with the scholars. I know a lot about the Bible - but not enough to say with any degree of confidence that another denomination should be condemned as `not biblical.' I can say with some confidence, however, that to do so would be, well, not biblical.

Each year in parish ministry I taught Confirmation class to Junior High students. I was lucky to be able to get them to memorize the Books of the Bible in order. Some were able to come in each week ready to record the chosen memory verse, but most were not. To presume that such students could, with any degree of integrity or accuracy, make claims about what it means to be Biblical is beyond belief.

So it must be asked: what brand of Christianity is it that raises up such youth who are armed to walk through their hallways with condemnation on their lips, ostracizing a fellow classmate by labeling him as `not biblical' solely on the evidence that he belonged to a church identified to them only by its denomination?

That, my friends, is a twisted Christianity.

In the e-mail, the young man writes about a co-worker of his. He now lives in the Ozarks. The two of them went into church one Sunday - choosing what he called "a more Pentecostal" church. He wrote that some of the things they preached "seemed a little off key to me." He wrote about not feeling comfortable there - nor his co-worker - and after a few weeks they quit going. He has gone on to find a church home (one of those `non-biblical UCC churches) - but his co-worker will not go back. He writes of this by saying "I sometimes think that maybe its because of possible `spiritual abuse.'"

It is his next line that struck me deeply, and I wrote him back to get his permission to share it with you: "I finally realized how Christianity has been twisted into something very cold and unloving and that the faith needs to be reclaimed from the right wing extremists..., people who think their way is right and everyone else is wrong."

I am very proud of this young man. He understands what it is that motivates so many of us who write on this website: the reclaiming of a faith built on love and mutual respect. It saddens me that I spend so much of my time, effort, and energy defending a church I love from the attack of a Christianity twisted into venom and vitriol. I am tired of reading in one publication after another circulated throughout the churches I serve that:

·    The United Church of Christ has declared its independence from the teachings of Jesus, and declared its independence from the authority of scripture (from the Faithful and Welcoming pamphlet handed out on their recent 16 city national tour)
·    "Open and Affirming" means open to exclude any part of the Bible that is inconvenient (from a member of a UCC church in St. Louis to his pastor)
·    "They have made a mockery of our Bible" (referring to the UCC and its position on Marriage Equality - from the same e-mail referred to above)
·    The UCC is moving toward the proclamation of a "new and strange gospel" (from a flyer circulated among our churches by a church identified only as "First Church")
·    "The NCH censorship rules conform to the goddess-worship need. To that extent, the NCH opens the door of the biblical temple for the re-entrance of the Asherah poles." (NCH refers to the UCC's New Century Hymnal; this quote found on the website of the Biblical Witness Fellowship - an IRD related renewal group)

This could go on, but you get the point. We are reclaiming our faith from those who have made it cold and unloving; from those who "think their way is right and everyone else is wrong."

What kind of Christianity is it that churns out teenagers who walk their school's hallways labeling others as not biblical; that purports to renew while intent on destroying; that foments dissent and destruction at the cost of unity, love, and respect? Twisted.

Indeed.