Me-ology

What is meology? It is the study of me and everything that I am entitled to have. In its legal setting, meology tries to figure out how the law should be applied to others whilst I receive a pass. In its religious connotation, it refers to the efforts to conform God to my vision of what he should be. It pervades every aspect of our entitlement culture and has its greatest following in the Millennium Generation. Argumentation for meology usually concerns some form of fairness...of course it is unfair if my definition of fairness is not applied to the argument.

For this post, let us look at defining God in my image. How can I do that? It is simple. The Postmodern mindset has the reader being the chief translator of the message being conveyed and for our purposes, that means the Bible. So, If I don't like certain passages of the Bible, I can take a wink and a nod at the page and try to find something that is, let us say, more appealing to my sensibilities.

The popular Jesus is the soft and fluffy Jesus. We don't like judgment, so we conveniently leave out Jesus condemning sin (and people!) because that's too mean. We don't like to think that God would be condemning especially to people who don't receive the message of Jesus. When in reality, there is something we hold close and don't want to be judged for. This stems from a week view on repentance and an inflated view of human identity. I find it amazing that in Mark, arguably the first written Gospel, Jesus' first words are judgmental. "The Kingdom of God is near, repent...." Oh Dear! How do we change this? Simple, just focus on the second portion of the statement. "...Believe the Good News!" Huzzah to that! No repentance, just grace and faith.

I think we are all guilty of this to some degree. Most of us struggle with what we don't like in the Bible in a mature manner. We let the tension guide our understanding of who God has revealed himself to be. However, it is the immature thinker who cannot handle the tension and starts to excuse it as contradiction or unreasonable. Worse, it is the meologian who devises a whole new vision of God and revelation to suit his or her sensibilities. It is the height of self-focus to believe that God conforms to our needs. It also speaks to an ingratitude that has lost the vision of a gracious God revealing himself to humanity, saving humanity from its sin, and including humanity in His Kingdom.

One thing about the story of God's salvation in the world that I have observed concerns His highlighting of our ignorance and the revealing of what is true concerning who God is. Throughout the Bible, people have diminished certain aspects of God and elevated others. Sadly, this aspect of human nature has continued in the Church. If the Kings of Israel and Judah were meologists, why am I surprised to find the same thing today? I just don't like the fact that judgment (there is that bad word again) usually followed in the footsteps of the apostate Kings.