“He talks about his father being a good role model for him in terms of seeking truth. Humility seems to be a big theme. Just because we as Christians have the Bible to refer to as truth, it doesn’t mean we should wield it as a weapon. Dark’s father, when someone would back something up with the phrase, “It’s biblical,” he would especially scrutinize it, because “the Bible belonged to everyone and no one,” and “anyone who presumed to own its copyright was criminally insane” (ix). Dark says, “To view truthfulness not as a boasting point we have over others but as a standard that judges all our talk, is to recognize oneself as a partaker of common humanity humbly bound to the common good of attempted truthfulness” (xi).
This resonates with me as I have had more than one conversation where the Bible has been invoked to rebut whatever I was saying, often with the phrase, "your disagreement is not with me, but with God." That has always rankled me--there is an air of disengenousness about it or a deflection. I think that issue of humility is a huge one, one made the more important when people claim to be speaking for God. Anyway, thanks to Natalie for starting this particular conversation.
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