Warning: I Read Stuff!

Warning: I Read Stuff
by, Charles W. Christian

For fourteen years or so, I have told students that the most dangerous thing you can learn is how to read. By this I do not mean the ability to just sound out words or even to read in public. I mean to really read: to read in such a way that you (in the words of one philosopher) “enter into the writer’s world.” It is a way of reading analytically, bringing your own perspective but being honest about engaging the writer’s own perspective. This is a dangerous and life-changing endeavor. By reading this way, even those with whom we disagree are granted permission to at least try and change our way of thinking. In regard to the Bible, we may be forced to encounter God in such a way that challenges our preconceived ideas. It is alright, even normal, if this happens frequently. After all, Christians serve Jesus, who was fond of saying (as in the Sermon on the Mount): “You have heard it said______, BUT I tell you ____.” In other words: You read this one way, but I offer you a deeper reading, a reading that challenges what you think you know! Or maybe: If you had really read this, you would have caught this part of the message.

As a pastor, I often get “warnings” from various organizations about some sort of coming doom or some law that is going to forever change the face of civilization. Sometimes their fears are valid. Most often, these warning letters are overblown, playing upon the fears of potential donors to their organization. How does one determine the difference between the two?

The answer is the kind of reading I have just described above. When usually well-meaning people pass along such information to me, it is usually accompanied by assurances that the organization’s lawyers or leading theologians have read and endorsed the message. However, when I ask if they have read the law in question or the opinion, I usually get the same answer: “Well, the lawyers and theologians associated with the organization have read it thoroughly.” This is where my warning to them comes: I will not share this information until I read it, if I agree with the conclusion of the organization, after I interact with others whom I trust about these same conclusions. That’s the dangerous part of actually reading. Because more often than not the so called “experts” have an agenda that does not fully represent the facts. So, the fear based warnings are counteracted by a closer reading, or by actually just reading.

My first theology professor in seminary, Dr. James Leo Garrett, is who I credit for teaching me to really read. Of course, I was technically reading from the time I was a small child. However, Dr. Garrett challenged us to read comparatively and to read often. He challenged us to connect and compare what we read. He even challenged us to read the footnotes, to see where the author gets his or her information. He was not opposed to testing or quizzing us on these footnotes, too, by the way. I have tried to pass this tradition on to students and to parishioners as best I can in the last two decades. It makes reading more than simply a functional and practical exercise. It instead allows reading to be a life-changing experience that provides us the gift of community outside of our normal circles of interaction. During this election year as a vast array of politicians and political pundits approach us with their interpretation of information, we can boldly say to them, “Warning: I actually read stuff!”