Division in church rides on Scripture

In one of my favorite faith-based jokes, someone finally rescues a fellow who has been stranded on a deserted island for years. But the rescuer is puzzled by two structures the man built while living there alone.
"What's that building?" the newcomer asks, pointing at one.
"Oh, that's my church," says the man.
"Well, then what's that other building?" the rescuer asks.
"Oh, that's the church I used to attend."
Is there something inherently divisive about religion that explains the painful splits in faith groups of all kinds?
I wondered anew about that not long ago when Christ Church in Overland Park, Kan., a Kansas City suburb, voted to leave the Episcopal Church in the United States. It was more evidence that Episcopalians (like Presbyterians, Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans, Jews, Muslims, Hindus ...) seem to be at one another's throats.
Going deeper
Even the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church in the United States is part, is in some turmoil -- and much of that is because of battles within the Episcopal Church.
Many people point to the 2003 decision to consecrate an openly gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire as the cause of fighting in the Episcopal Church. His installation has resulted in a decision by the Anglican Communion not to allow delegates from the U.S. Episcopal Church to participate next month in the Anglican Consultative Council, one of the global bodies that help set policy for the church.
But, in fact, the cause of this rift -- and many others -- goes deeper. The fundamental point of conflict has to do with how people read sacred scripture.
It's hard to generalize about this, but people often adopt one of several ways of reading writings that faith communities regard as holy. And their choice has profound implications for how they view others and their own religion.
Broad spectrum
At one end of a broad spectrum, some people read scripture merely as inspirational literature. To them, it's mostly just stories with morals, not unlike Aesop's fables. In this view, there's no room for the idea of divine inspiration.
Way at the other end, people read scripture as the infallible word of God, without historical, scientific or any other kind of error. If God didn't exactly dictate every word, at least the final product bears the stamp of complete divine approval. In this approach, sometimes the letter can trump the spirit.
Between those extremes one finds the broad middle of adherents, who tend to believe that scripture contains God's wisdom, but who think it must be interpreted in light of when it was written and to whom, and who believe God's message in the Bible has necessarily been filtered through the writing and editing of fallible humans.
One problem in this broad middle is that people tend not to read scripture much. They hear a few verses in a worship service and let it go at that. What do people at either end of the spectrum and in the middle have in common? Something important, actually. Something that leads to many of the divisions we see in faith communities.
Drawing meaning out
What they share is that most people in most religions don't or can't do detailed text studies -- especially in the writing's original language. Theologians call this work "exegesis." It means drawing out a passage's meaning.
It can be difficult, tedious work, though its rewards are many. Done well, it leads to deeper understandings and to an attitude of caution about claiming too much for the text. It leads also to respect for different conclusions drawn by others who also have done the exegetical work.
Without exegesis, something called "eisegesis" often happens. That's the fancy word theologians use to refer to the process not of drawing meaning out of the text but, rather, of putting meaning in. You often can spot people who engage in this backward and misleading process by the way they talk. They often begin sentences this way: "The Bible says ..." (And sometimes they're even right.)
But sacred texts demand careful reading -- not to fog up or hide the meaning there but, rather, to reveal it. When scripture is used as a weapon of certitude without such a reading, we get intra-faith warfare that tears up faith communities.
XBill Tammeus is a columnist for the Kansas City Star. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.