I’m sure some of you might be somewhat put off by the title of this post. But there is a story behind it.

Two years ago, I posted a new take on an old prayer in what was then my religion-themed blog, The Cross Examination.

What made it a “new take” was that it was the familiar Lord’s Prayer translated into the language that might be expected (or may actually be used) by Native Americans. I thought it was an interesting way to look at something we’d all learned at some point in our lives – usually in childhood — but may not have thought about in quite the same way.

Earlier this year, Paul of Aurora Walking Vacation, left a comment which began this way:

“I love The Lord’s Prayer. It is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the Christian religion.”

I’ve been meaning to respond to this post for some time, but not for the reason you might think.

Paul makes an excellent point about the Lord’s Prayer and how it came into existence. I’ll continue with his comment so you can read the explanation in his own words:

“Read the story of it in The Bible. basically, it goes like this:

“The apostles came to Jesus and asked him to tell them the right words to say so that God would surely hear their prayers. Jesus told them not to be silly, that there were no ‘right’ words to say. As long as your prayer is sincere, and comes from the heart, it will surely be heard. And he made up a prayer off the top of his head, like this, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven…’

“And the apostles dutifully wrote it all down, and we have been reciting it by rote ever since. Is it any surprise people have difficulty following the example of Christ? His own apostles never listened to him.”

If you read the story, you’ll find that Paul is pretty much dead on in describing what transpired. I don’t disagree with that part of his point. Then there is the story of Jesus praying in the woods and finding the apostles asleep when time after time he asked them stay awake. That was his only request of them at that moment, and they couldn’t even do that.

As my pastor recently said of that story, “That makes me feel really good to know that I’m in that level of company.”

What I do disagree with in Paul’s comment is his contention that the disciples not listening is everything that’s wrong with Christianity. Because I think it goes deeper than that.

It’s not so much that they didn’t listen. It’s that they were listening so hard that they completely missed the point. They paid perfect attention, heard every word, even wrote each one down. But they didn’t get the message behind the words because they were afraid of doing the wrong thing.

So afraid that they didn’t take time to think.

This is what I think is “everything that’s wrong” with Christianity: Christians, all too often, don’t think.

They listen. They read the words. They hear the sermons. But they don’t question what they hear, because they’re afraid of sounding blasphemous or “ungodly.” And in not questioning, in blindly accepting, they’re all too often getting a message that could well reflect someone else’s personal opinion, one that is completely inconsistent with what God hopes we’ll think.

If you’ve ever spent more than five minutes with a young child, you know that their favorite question in the world is “Why?” They ask it incessantly. Sometimes, they don’t really hear all of the answer, because they’re too busy waiting for a lull in the conversation so that they can ask again and keep your attention. But sometimes they do hear the answer and they still want to know why.

At some point, we Christians lost the ability to ask, “Why?”

We show up for church on Sunday and we listen to the sermon. We seem to think that we have two choices: either accept everything the pastor says, or write said pastor off as some kind of nut and find a different church.

There’s rarely a third option. And that’s a problem.

For years, I have told people that my favorite bible verse can be found in the book of Proverbs. It’s actually Proverbs 18:24. The King James Version reads this way:

“A man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”

I’ve always taken the first half of this passage to mean that you must first be a friend to have friends. I’ve found that to be very true in my life.

Other translations take the passage a little differently. Here’s the New International Version of the same verse:

“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

There’s truth in the first half of that version, too.

Here’s the way a more modern-language translation, The New Living Bible, interprets the verse:

“There are ‘friends’ who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.” (The quotation marks around the word friends is theirs, not mine.)

Finally, a newer contemporary-language version, The Message, says:

“Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family.”

I’m lucky enough to have as my best friend the kind of friend who does stick by me like family. As far as I am concerned, he’s my brother, the closest thing I’ll ever have to a brother without really having one. I just saw him over the weekend, in fact, and at one point, we went to the grocery store to pick up some sandwich-making materials. He was picking on me at the checkout line, and the cashier asked if we were brothers. (There is something of a resemblance, I suppose, particularly around the midsection. He’d get me for that, if he knew I had a blog!) But we both said, at the same time, “We might as well be.”

This verse is a reminder to me of that fact.

But it’s more than that. In most of the translations, the second half also implies that God is the friend who will stick with you more reliably than family. I like the thought of that, too.

So it is a verse that holds a double meaning for me. But it’s no longer my favorite verse. The one that takes its place can be found in 1 Thessalonians:

“Test all things and hold fast to that which is good.”

—1 Thessalonians 5:21

The implications of such a single statement are tremendous for those who actually take the time to ponder them. It’s from a passage in which Paul is giving advice and instruction to Christians in Thessalonica. He advises them not to turn a deaf ear towards prophesy, but rather to listen carefully and test what they are told to see if it contains God’s truth.

In other words, don’t take everything at face value. Use your brain. Make a judgment call based on what you know and feel is true based on what you know and feel God is.

Is it possible that there could be false teachings in the Bible itself? That’s something you have to decide for yourself. I think it is entirely possible that the Bible was written by people who felt that they were inspired by God to speak for Him, but whose writing reflects a different culture at a different time.

Recently, at my first session in the Alpha program, the subject of women in ministry came up, and I asked those participating if they believed that the Bible would be somewhat different if it had been written in the year 2000. Many churches won’t consider giving a woman the title “Minister” because of scripture. But the Bible, I argue, was written at a time when women were considered more like property, not people. Most in the group seemed to agree that the Bible would be a different book if it had been written in 2000.

So it’s not that I think the Bible offers “false teachings” about women in ministry. But I do think that it reflects attitudes that are outdated, and to keep women out of ministry in this day and age would be to discriminate in a manner that I think would be inconsistent with God’s will.

There’s also always the chance that a preacher can be wrong. How do you know the sermon you’re listening to is really based on God’s word, not man’s agenda? The answer is simple: you look for yourself and make your own judgment.

As a friend of mine said the other night, if God didn’t mean for us to think about things, why did He give us brains capable of reasoning things out? If He really wanted only mindless sheep as followers, He could have created sheep without ever creating humans. But He chose us first. And He equipped us with minds that can analyze the message of Christianity, and find ways to apply it to our lives.

I don’t think that God ever meant for His people to be afraid to ask questions. It’s a shame so many of us are.