THE BIBLE AS A BASIS FOR MORAL GUIDANCE

Recently I had a conversation with the pastor of a local mainstream Protestant church.  At one point in our discussion he asked me if I considered the Bible to be a sufficient source for moral guidance.  His question caught me off guard, and I think I mumbled something about there being sources other than the Bible that can provide moral and ethical guidance.

Since that discussion I have had time to think further about the pastor’s question.  My conclusion is that the Bible is an extremely poor source for moral guidance.

THE GOLDEN TICKET

When I was growing up in the 1950s in the fold of the Seventh-day Adventist church, salvation was a really big deal.  We were taught that our current lives represented merely a testing ground for whether we would qualify for the golden ticket of salvation.  This was portrayed as essentially a binary choice.  There was no middle ground, no purgatory where we might have a second chance or perform a penance to gain entry into heaven.  Either we would be saved and go to heaven or we would be damned.

COUNTY FAIR

My parents were failed entrepreneurs, not by choice but by default.  My father simply was incapable of working for someone else.  Instead, my parents owned an appliance business that never succeeded beyond providing our family a day-to-day existence.  The insecurity resulting from their constant agonizing over how to make ends meet, which they shared with my sisters and me as passive participants, was a signature influence in the evolution of my attitudes toward career choices.

GETTING LOST IN THE MOMENT

Recently I posted an essay in which I encouraged the reader to take fuller advantage of and to better appreciate the one life that we have.  But I have been criticized by both family and friends for failing to follow my own admonition.  Specifically, I have been accused of spending too much time fretting over the past or worrying about the future, rather than experiencing my life in the present.  I confess: Guilty as charged.