Danger: Bible

While I think pointing out the “danger zones” in the Bible is imperative, I also value the “intention” of the author.  Of course at this point in our removal from the initial tellings of these stories, there are many suggestions that may be valid regarding what the author/s of any given text may have actually been trying to do.  I see reflected in the Fourth Gospel a marginalized community angry with the dominant voices of their religious community (that anger manifests in some unfortunate ways).  This marginalized community’s voice was used to colonize once the “Christian” voice became dominant and folks, in reading back on these texts, colonized these characters, in a sense, “stealing” them and reimagining them in ways that modern Jews nor Jews of the second century (including the Johannine community) would recognize as valid.  Furthermore, these texts have been used as justification for colonization and terrible abuses of power.  I guess I think “we” are more accountable for these abuses than the texts.