Non-Fundamentalists Unite

Quote of the day:
“You can run your whole life and not get anywhere.”
--Social Distortion

This is the time of year that religion is very present in the news.

It’s a source of perpetual annoyance to me that conversations about religion these days either begin as or devolve into screaming matches between religious fundamentalists and non-religious fundamentalists. These conversations accomplish nothing except to reinforce the self-righteousness of each side.

The truth is that most people--religious or not--are not fundamentalists and wish these people would restrain themselves.

In the spirit of this time of year, and in the interest of rationality, I offer the following to both religious and non-religious people. It’s a bit of explanation of where the stories about Jesus came from.

The first stories recorded were not about the birth of Jesus. Rather, they were about experiences of him after he died.

People began sharing these experiences. That’s what the Pauline letters focus on. And Paul’s letters were written before any of the gospels.

The gospels, written later, talk about the life of Jesus, and his death. The first gospel written was Mark, which begins with John the baptist and the initiation of Jesus’ ministry, which lasts through the final three years of his life.

The next gospels written were Matthew and Luke (for two very different communities), which add the birth narratives.

The last written--significantly later--was John, which begins with a non-historical but deeply theological interpretation of Jesus’ life. The rest of the gospel elaborates on this theological interpretation.