Back in college and seminary I was told that Bart Ehrman is dangerous, bordering on demonic. I was told that he had an ax to grind with Christianity and his work was focused solely on …
Dismantling it.
Discrediting it.
AND.
Making anyone who followed it feel like an insignificant and stupid worm.
When I graduated and started bucking the system, I picked up a bunch of his books and discovered that his voice in the books didn’t really match what I was told about him. I mean, yeah - he pokes holes in A LOT of what many of us were handed in church AND he talks a lot about the diversity of early Christianity in relation to Gnosticism, the Gnostic texts, etc.
But.
I mean.
… Isn't that what we do here? Poke holes in the institution, buck the system, and explore things that we’ve been told are off limits?
I brought this up to someone, that his voice in the books didn’t really sound all that harsh towards Christianity, and I was told that since he’s writing to a wide audience to make money he tones it down in the books and reserves his more harsh opinions for public discussion and debate.
Hm.
And so I reached out to Bart to invite him on the podcast and he turned me down 2 times because he was busy - grading, travel, etc. I’m persistent, though, and so after the New Year I reached out to him for a 3rd time and he agreed to come on the show IF I would allow him to post the video to his YouTube page.
And then I got nervous.
And I got nervous because I began to wonder if I had bit off something a little bigger than I could chew …
I mean, what if Bart really is mean?
And what if he does have an ax to grind with Christianity?
And what if I make an absolute fool of myself?
And what if ends up challenging me with questions I can't answer?
I began to frantically read through his books to figure out how I was going to steer this conversation in a direction where I would feel somewhat comfortable with the material and then I stopped myself.
“Wait a minute”, I said. “The church has outright lied to me about a bunch of stuff regarding God and Jesus and Salvation and End Times and LGBTQ people … and so perhaps I’ve also been lied to about Bart Ehrman.”
And then I decided to approach the conversation like I would approach a conversation with anyone else - a genuine interest in his work, with a desire to get to know him and his own journey.
To my surprise Bart was one of the nicest people I’ve talked to on the show and afterwards he asked me about my life, my family, my journey, my work, etc. He never spoke down to me, never made me feel insignificant, never made it seem like he had an ax to grind with Christianity, the Bible, or anything else.
All that to say - there are many people and teachers and thinkers that the church has demonized in an effort to keep your mind locked in the theological box it deems to be safe for you, but sometimes the safest thing you can do and the best thing you can do for yourself and your faith is explore the very thing or person whose work you’ve been told not to explore.
Peace.
Glenn
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