Last month I wrote about how complicated reading scripture can be: there are language, culture, and literary barriers that can keep us from properly understanding the text. These obstacles can be discouraging—they can make it feel like we’re just not qualified to read and understand the Bible. However, our tradition, the Restoration Movement, is founded on the idea that every Christian can read the Bible for themselves. How can this be if there are so many obstacles before us? How is an average Christian to read the Bible without a seminary degree? Many people read the Bible with a certain approach, which I call “Dragnet” Reading: they’re looking for “just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.” In Dragnet reading, you take a passage, chop it up, and mine it for the “facts” it contains. When you’ve figured out the facts in that passage, then you can say “This is what the passage means!” and move onto the next passage. For example, someone who is Dragnet-reading might read Leviticus 19:28 (
(or, A Fragment of Theology)