How would you like to be the parent of kids 10, 13, and 16 yrs old, and have them hear that the serpent never spoke in the garden. From a priest.
It’s a reasonable reaction. Still, though, it becomes an opportunity to talk about how we tell truth through the medium of stories. Does your 16-year-old think that Goldilocks or Snow White really existed? Do they understand that the morals of those stories are true, though?
It’s also an opportunity to discuss the fact that the Bible is made up of many books, written in many times and places, and of different genres of literature. Your 10-year-old recognizes the difference between ‘history’ and ‘poetry’ and ‘stories that teach morals’, right? The Bible has examples of each of these.
It’s a good opportunity to teach that Catholics read different parts of the Bible through different lenses, and aren’t strict Scriptural literalists (i.e., fundamentalists). That’s a
very important lesson here in the States, where many non-Catholic Christians
are hyper-literalistic in their approach to Scripture. It’s important because they’ll say things to your kids that challenge their Catholic faith, and it’s good that your kids know enough to say “we don’t interpret that story in that way; Catholics understand it differently.” If they’re unable to do so, then they walk away thinking, “hmm… wow! I guess Catholics are
wrong about that stuff we believe, since it says something
different in the Bible!”, rather than thinking “hmm… we read the same Bible, but they and we interpret it differently!”
Does the same dynamic – vis-a-vis the presence of fundamentalists – exist in Canada?
This is my issue with the comment.
Yet… the comment
is true. Are we now deciding that priests shouldn’t preach the truth about Scripture as taught by the Church, in the name of “keeping things uncomplicated”?
