Our Framed World

If what we knew to be true was not would we still believe that which is wrong because it's easy or would we search for something new? Think about it for a moment. Recently I have been struggling with a few questions that will form into later blogs/notes, but for now I would like to discuss just one of those questions (sorry Mike, it's not the one about the Batman movie, I'm still letting my thoughts about that one brew in my mind).

There is a concept that some of you may have herd about that I have learned about in my sociology classes that is called "framing." Framing is looking at something in a particular context and way of thinking. For example, when we watch a movie on Vietnam (I'm using this reference because I saw Tropic Thunder last night and it was terrible and I'm angry that I spent money on an "A" rated movie that only deserved a "C" maximum), anyway when we watch a movie on let's say Vietnam, we view (or frame) the Vietnam War based on that movie and do not put it in it's proper context. Although many movies come close to how it was in war they are still one-sided, our side, and so they are framed accordingly to how it should h ave gone or how the government would like us to think it went, that is framing. Now I'm not trying to persuade anyone to believe that the government is behind what we know and learn, I'll leave that to your own interpretation and thoughts, what I said about framing was a way to frame what framing is in a visual way (that was way to confusing of a statement, sorry).

Anyway, back to framing, I believe that framing can be a good thing or a bad thing. Good because it can help us learn more about the situation and the context behind something, and bad because if the same situation is framed by someone who does not give the correct context and puts his or her own comments into the situation, it becomes distorted from it's original purpose and can cause people to believe something that is not actually there.

In Men In Black (a really cool movie if you haven't seen it) Tommy Lee Jones (Agent K) tells Will Smith (Agent J) that the way things are framed (there are no aliens living among us) is not true. He says something like 500 years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the Universe, 100 years ago everybody knew the Earth was flat, and 15 minutes ago you knew humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow. (paraphrase)

This next section may come across as heresy and I assure you that it is not, it is just a change in thought and a hope that when when you are done reading that you will not view the world, you life, Christianity, etc. in a new and fresh way. Now again I am not trying to force an opinion on anyone, I am only trying to give another way of thinking about things. Everyone who reads anything has three different options to do when they are done with the particular reading: they can walk away upset that someone would even write such a thing and continue to believe what they have learned, they can think that what was written was interesting and pursue the topic further on their own, or they can take it at face value and incorporate it into their own theology. Personally I believe that the second option is the best because I believe that even if something is true for you, you can find some truth in it, and I also believe that we should not just take people at their word and believe what they say, but that we should question what they say.

When viewing the Bible and doing a Bible study, it is important to to view it in its context. Only once we understand the context of the past, can we apply it to ourselves in the present. We must know that what was written was written by a certain type of people and for a certain type of people. Yes, the Bible was not written for or to us today! Shocking I know, but that does not mean that it does not have relevance for us today! However we can only apply its mean to our lives after we understand where the writers were coming from and who they were writing to and why they were writing to those people. The Bible is a narrative about a people chosen by a loving God to radically change his creation from a path of destruction to a path of life (I am not talking about heaven and hell right now, that talk will come at a later time).

For example, when we read the part in the Gospels (Luke 20:20) about paying taxes to Caesar, we think it is about paying taxes to the government and tithing to the church. Why do we think about it that way? Who was Jesus, who was he talking to, where were they, and what was going on during that time? Take a moment and try and answer those questions yourself.

Jesus was a Jew, born and raised a Jew, in a Jewish culture, and with Jewish beliefs and Jewish customs. In the time of Jesus there were about five major sects of Judaism: Essenes, Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots and Herodians. The Sadduccees and Herodians believed that corporation with the Romans was essential for survival, the Pharisees and the Zealots believed that they should not be ruled by anyone and that the Jewish people should revolt, and the Essenes believed that they should hid in captivity and preserve their traditions until the threat of Rome was over (that is a small glimpse of the sects, however there is much more that can be learned about them). All the groups tried to see which side Jesus was on, but by saying what he said, he pleased both sides. But to his audience they did not hear paying taxes to Caesar or even to tithe which we so often believe, but rather a call to revolution against the oppression of the Romans but not in a conventional sense with a sword and shield but rather through peace and death.

There is much more to the story than what I have given you, but I am giving an opportunity to search for answers yourself. As always I am up for discussion, but when you respond please do not get upset if I respond by explaining my position, we are not here to persuade each other but rather to challenge each other in our thinking. So back to the original question, if what we knew to be true was not would we still believe that which is wrong because it's easy or would we search for something new? There is much that I believe is not what we have been told, and is worth investigation and questioning. In our search for truth, do not be afraid to search or what the results may be or even what people will say!! For me, I would rather be one person alone who searches for the truth and challenges tradition than a part of a group who is complacent with what they know does not want to take the challenging road!