CHURCH CONTEXTUAL ILLITERACY

CONTEXTUAL ILLITERACY IN THE CHURCH

This is an introduction to one of the biggest causes of logical fallacies in the church, as well as in society in general: Contextual Illiteracy. Errors in comprehending proper perspective and context has nothing to do with an education, or lack of it, nothing at all. America has scores of highly educated people in government, the corporate world and the church who are grossly illiterate in the area of apprehending the right placement of various frames of reference.

For example, the move to ban private ownership of firearms is one of the largest secular misnomers there has ever been. Because criminals use guns to commit crimes, the erroneous thought pattern is promoted that guns are the root cause of violence in society. Advocates of weapon prohibition either fail or neglect to acknowledge that if guns are taken away from the populace, the lawless will still have them, not to mention the fact that "taking" God out of society is the main reason for much of the reckless, forceful physical abandon to begin with.

How about something more Biblical, which is part of a pattern of scriptural misinterpretation? let's take I Timothy 4:8: For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Because of certain churchmen misconstruing that verse, they would have people to believe that the Apostle Paul is stating that we ought not to engage in physical exercise, sports and other strenuous activity. Quite wrong!

Paul is relating that concerning things spiritual, exercising is of little value, very true in most regards. A person bound in a wheel chair or bed can be just as close to the Lord as a superb athlete, if they commit to study, prayer, obedience and cleansing of the heart. Salvation is of the heart, not of works [Romans 2:29]. But does this mean that we should neglect keeping fit?

Jesus, and all of the disciples, most people during that time, walked just about everywhere they went, out of necessity, and generally, people then were in much better shape than people of today in civilized countries. Samson, a judge and prophet of the Old Testament, possessed great strength. The Holy Ghost moved upon him at times in order to give him what could be called super-human strength, so that he could perform God's will. Nevertheless, he was very strong to begin with, naturally, by virtue of likely his genetic makeup and doing a lot of physical activity which made him strong. The Holy Spirit simply granted Samson temporary strength at times which was far and above what any human could otherwise exert.

Getting and remaining in peak physical condition helps ward off sickness, disease and premature aging, as well as instilling an all around better outlook on life by adhering to how we are to be naturally be. Thus said, how much is too much? Which brings us to another logical fallacy, which concept is also misunderstood in a myriad of situations: moderation.

According to definition [ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moderate ], moderation is this context is 'average in size or amount : neither too much nor too little'. Here is the logical fallacy argued by some, primarily by those who seek to make everyone alike, probably in order to justify their own slackness and negligence in any given matter: what one person considers moderation is not necessarily a true moderation to all. Someone who walks a mile per day may claim that world-class athletes are sinning because of failing to be moderate. That is the logical fallacy. Moderation concerning exercise varies from one context [a group of athletes] to another [minimally active persons].

There is much confusion in the church and society because people do not understand what scripture means, nor the definition of key words. An example of obsessive control due to not understanding contexts occurred in America and England among the Puritan sect of religious people. In that misconstruction of Christ's faith, pastors would go so far as to dictate when married couples could perform coitus.

There is much to be said on the issue of contextual illiteracy, and this is just a start...