Editorial January 16, 1989 Issue

Unmixing the mix

Michael D. Rissler

Human life is an incredibly complex mixture of many things. There is breathtaking beauty in nature, and there is also the fury of hurricanes. At times we can be almost stunned by the magnificence of a person's goodness and the lengths to which he or she will go to help another. And then there are other times when selfishness or brutality goes beyond anything we could have imagined possible.

Even the Bible can be viewed as a mixture. It can be interpreted in so many different ways—ways that show the tendency of thought to order experience according to personal preferences and beliefs. For example, there is an interpretation of Scripture that suggests that God has made mankind into different races and that these races are intended by divine edict to live separately—separately as if there were an impenetrable, although invisible, wall between people. But then we come to portions of the Bible that won't fit into this restrictive view.

Christ Jesus told the story of a Samaritan who came to the aid of an injured man on the side of a highway. Undoubtedly there were some in his non-Samaritan audience who didn't like the hero of Jesus' story. At another time, Jesus held up the faith of a Roman soldier as uniquely praiseworthy and greater than anything he had seen in Israel—a nation that took much pride in its religious faith.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Unmixing the mix

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access