A Breakfast Discussion

“Listen, I’m not trying to say that there’s no value to the stories, I’m just saying that maybe they’re meant to be taken more figuratively than literally. Like, the rabbit and the hare, great lesson in the story, great story even, but it’s just a story that teaches a lesson, not something that actually happened,” she said as she took another bite from her cereal. He looks at her in awe, like he cannot believe her beliefs are so wrong.  

“How can you even think that? The Bible is God's Word. If He said it happened, it happened. The stories seem unbelievable because they’re stories showing God’s power and how He can create miracles. You doubting these stories is like you doubting God!”. He is pacing around the kitchen, his hands in his hair. They’ve been together nearly five years and normally they tiptoe around the God conversation. 

“That’s another thing, why is doubting God such a terrible thing? The Church has made it into such a big fear tactic, like you’re not really Christian if you’ve ever doubted God. I think every Christian has gone through a time where they’ve doubted God and then they don’t have anyone to turn to. Think about parents who have children who die too young, I certainly would have doubts then...”. Her grandfather was a preacher. A real ‘God loves everyone... unless you’re gay, not white, or not Christian’ type of preacher. It was confusing for her to grow up learning more of God’s hate than God’s love. She stopped going to church when she was ten. 

“I was taught that everything happens for a reason, and to trust God even if we don’t know and can’t understand the reason. I can see how the churches are fearmongering and yeah, that sucks, but we shouldn’t turn away from God because people are interpreting Him wrong.”. He grew up going to church with his family every Sunday and going to church camp every summer. He only just recently started going less and less often. 

“What sucks is how many interpretations of the Bible there are. It gets worse every time it gets retranslated because people add stuff in. The word homosexual wasn’t mentioned in the bible until the 1940s when someone retranslated it. And it wasn’t even translated correctly, in every verse that mentions homosexuality at all it originally was talking about pedophilia. Sorry, that’s beside the point and we agree on that. But, no I don’t think we should turn away from God, I think God is good but it’s hard to believe he did all these wild miracles in the biblical age and stopped after that,”. 

 The last conversation they had ended on a positive note, both agreeing his regular church wasn’t the worst but certainly wasn’t the best either. The church was using fear tactics and that didn’t seem fair to do to people like him who had been going there for nearly his whole life and had been doing everything right in terms of the church. 

“He still performs miracles every day they’re just more subtle. Modern medicine is a miracle, puppies being saved from pounds is a miracle. Just because no one's turning water into wine anymore doesn’t mean there’s not miracles happening.”. 

“Okay, what’s to say of all the bad stuff? Modern medicine failing and people dying of cancer? In some countries, little girls are still being sold into marriages. I guess this is where we loop back to ‘everything happens for a reason", but that doesn’t seem fair to me.”. 

“It doesn’t have to seem fair to you, you’re not all-knowing; God is.”. 

She pauses to think for a moment and puts her cereal bowl in the dishwasher. He’s leaning with his back to the counter next to her. She leans against him. 

“I want to know God and I want to understand his word but it's so hard. I am filled with doubt about normal things, there’s more doubt surrounding the things I can’t see. That’s why it’s easier for me to believe biblical stories are figurative. It's like some things about God resonate with me more than other things. It makes me feel good about God when I hear someone talk about how loving and caring God is to everyone no matter sexual orientation, color, or anything else. But I don’t like when I hear preachers say that God is judging us on everything we do, and we must devote ourselves to Him. The whole worshipping thing is weird to me, is that cherry-picking?”. 

“Well God does love everyone, so that’s okay to focus on if it makes you feel better. But He also has guidelines, but the thing is He’ll love you even if you stray from those guidelines, you just are supposed to try your best and trust Him.”. He puts his arm around her and pulls her closer. 

“The guidelines are the biggest part of what’s been misconstrued to us by churches though. I feel like everything is so jumbled and no one really knows what the bible means. I also grew up learning science and evolution and whatnot, so it was hard for that to coincide with the Bible, but the stories being figurative makes it easier for the two to coexist. Like Adam and Eve maybe weren’t actually the first people, but it was a story to teach a lesson about being too indulgent?”. He steps away from her and puts his hands in his hair. 

“You are clinging onto this theory way too much. Biblical stories are real, they happened, Adam and Eve were real, and they were the first people. The Bible is a lot to take in, especially when there are so many ways to see things, but in every branch of the religion, it’s agreed upon that the Bible is real and truthful.’. 

She looks out the window in their dining room, these talks are always the worst because she thinks neither of them really know anything at all, certainly not enough to speak on what is certain and what is not. 

“Well, I guess we will just agree to disagree then.”. She shrugs. 

“Yeah, I guess we will.”.