Questions, Linguistics, and the need for Ella Grady

In Old Testament today we talked more about methodologies, which was very interesting. Many of these methodologies I find very useful and very new to me, such as Canonical Criticism, Ideological Criticism, and Social-Scientist Criticism. Even one which I previously would never have claimed to even have a desire of understanding, Feminist Criticism, I am beginning to be able to appreciate. But the buck stops there. We talked very briefly about whats referrred to as "Queer Readings" - or, how sexual orientation may affect your reading of the Bible. How in the heck does it do that? I really want to know and we did not talk about it in class. How does the fact that you're gay or straight make reading the Bible any different? And I don't want to hear about Romans 1 or Leviticus 17-19, those parts are obvious. I want to know how being gay or straight affects your understanding of John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 13, the entirety of Revelation, Matthew 5, Psalm 23, Jonah, Proverbs 3:5-6, and others. Please, if you have any insight to this, enlighten me. I really want to know, because until I do, I'm declaring this to be BS.

For Liturgy tomorrow we read a bit about language and how language affects prayer. It also touched on prose vs. poetry language. This got me thinking about the spoken word and how important setting and intonation are to what is being said. Take the following three sentences, for example.

"Hello and welcome to McDonalds. May I take your order?"

"I am the LORD, thy God....Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

"I was sorry to hear your father died. That's terrible!"

Read them aloud and intone them as you think is properly befitting, while imagining what you believe to be the proper setting for these sentences to be used. Then, after that, switch them around on one another. Humor ensues. Or irritation. That was just something I was thinking about.

Finally, on the need for Ella Grady. Ella is the wife of the associate rector at my home parish of St. Hilary's. She is quite possibly one of the most loving women I know, welcoming and kind, caring in all regards, firm in the faith. Upon my departure for seminary she imparted upon me three imperatives to always remember while in seminary:

"JESUS FIRST! JESUS FIRST! JESUS FIRST!"

I could really stand to have her come up her and see to it that those imperatives are ground into my innermost being right now. Seminary is weird in a lot of ways, and I am questioning a lot of what I read. It doesn't seem like the type of thing which one would expect to hear in a seminary. For example, earlier this evening, in reference to Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, King David, and Queen Esther, the author of an assigned text remarked: "Indeed, many of these people never existed in the first place." That's a pretty big claim there sister. One which I refute on the basis of something I'm not sure she's heard about: BIBLICAL AUTHORITY! There's a number of other examples, including today when I referred to creationism as a plausible account of the world's beginnings and received an incredulous look from a classmate followed by a perfunctory, "Ok...".

I'm no "fundamentalist" (in the pejorative sense), nor do I believe the Bible to be inerrant (rather, I believe it to be infalliable, a distinction for another time), but it does hold pride of place for me. Indeed, even in our tradition, it represents one of the stool legs (other two: tradition, reason), though of late I am wondering if we won't soon find ourselves sitting on a block of wood on the ground, instead of a stool.

So, Ella, wherever you are, I need to re-hear your powerful words tonight. I thank you for them, from the bottom of my heart.

-R