Welcome to Fall

Written By Jonathan Krogh

Dear Children of the fall:

With Labor Day behind us, we are unofficially in autumn. “Unofficially,” because astronomical fall begins when Earth’s tilt aligns the sun directly over the equator on its southward journey toward the winter solstice. This year, that happens on September 22 at 7:05 p.m. CDT. The first days of autumn and spring are called equinoxes—literally, “equal night”—which sounds like a neat division of 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. Nature, however, has not consulted the sunrise/sunset tables. On the first day of autumn, daylight lasts about nine minutes too long because Earth’s atmosphere refracts the sun’s rays. The tidier balance arrives on September 26. Meanwhile, meteorological fall began September 1, because weather forecasters prefer their seasons in convenient three-month boxes.

These competing autumns have led me to wonder what it means to call anything true with precision. I realize, no one asked, but I have been thinking about biblical literalists who insist that Scripture must be an immovable anchor for faith. If the Bible says something, they argue, it must be unquestionably true exactly as recorded; otherwise faith itself becomes not true, but relative.

My problem is not simply that Scripture can be ambiguous. It is that the truth of any statement depends, in part, on what we mean by truth. When I say I believe the Bible to be true, I mean it. But the claim requires some clarity about how I am using the word. It is rather like announcing the beginning of autumn: first define autumn and be clear about the hemisphere in which you are standing.

At this point, you may fairly say, “Ask the pastor what season it is, and he tells you how to build a sextant.” Fair enough. But my concern is not precision for its own sake; it is faith and what is sometimes disguised as faith.

Those who proclaim certainty about the Bible’s absolute accuracy are not always exercising faith; sometimes they are signaling allegiance to their social clan. The message is simple: our group is right, everyone else is wrong, and method only muddies the water. Their literalism is less a radical devotion to the text than a reflexive rejection of every other way of knowing. Sociology, psychology, climatology, economics, medicine, biology, archaeology and history are dismissed with a righteous wave of the hand, as if expertise was merely doubt-wearing spectacles. They do not begin with the text and ask in what way it is true. They begin with their conclusions, then fortify them with well-thumbed Bibles, digging trenches through obscure passages on creation, sexuality, medicine and society. Scripture becomes not a means of changing their minds, but a means of calcifying their prejudice.

The fact is, the Bible is messy. It contains tensions and inconsistencies, and it is silent about many modern social and moral questions. It offers no clear condemnation of slavery, no sweeping denunciation of polygamy and no ready-made defense of democracy or the inalienable rights of the individual. Those convictions are not printed neatly on the page, yet I would still defend them as Christian ideals formed not by ignoring Scripture, but by reading it through the life and teachings of God’s followers.

So, we are free to enjoy fall whenever you decide to start it. Unless, of course, fall means being flooded with pumpkin-spice everything beginning in July. I am certain there must be a Bible verse against THAT!

Trying to thumb my Bible without thumbing my nose, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor

Jonathan Krogh
Next

Perceiving Parton’s Potluck