The above headline was in last week’s newspaper. The writer, Leonard Pitts Jr. was addressing a woman who was told she could not continue teaching a Bible Class. Apparently this class was made up of men and women. The Baptist Church of Watertown, N.Y. fired her from the Sunday school class she had been teaching for 54 years.

Mr. Pitts admits the church was doctrinally correct but he equated it to "church politics." To quote the writer, "it’s just not right." Meaning it is not politically right. He mentions homosexuality being condemned and capital punish as being in the Bible but not being "right right."

In answering this article I would like to make the following observation. Mr. Pitts makes a good point concerning people that will take the Bible literally until in condemns them. Jesus spoke of such hypocrisy in Matthew 23 where the Jews did works to be seen by men (v. 4-6); to exalted themselves (v. 12); and spoke one thing but did another (v. 3). There are hypocrites pretending to be Christians and they are giving true Christians a bad rap.

In another sense the writer is right when he says people need to see the big picture. They need to concentrate on sacrifice, redemption, and love. Again Jesus makes this point in Matthew 23.23, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone." As some have said they were majoring in the minors. I agree with Mr. Pitts in seeing the big picture, but I noticed he mentioned nothing of sin, God’s judgment, and His vengeance. Those are part of the "big picture" also.

The problem with Mr. Pitts is he wants to edit the Bible. He will observe the part he agrees with and discounts what he believes is narrow-minded and bigoted.

The fact is the entire Bible is not to be taken literally. Parts are figurative; Jesus used figures of speech in His teachings. When he speaks of cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye in order to escape hell, he is using a figure of speech. We are to cast off anything that causes us to be lost. It is a mistake to interpret literal passages that are figurative, such as much of Revelation and it is wrong to make figurative passages literal. For instance, Genesis 1 is written to be taken literally and not figuratively. We know by studying the context of the passages. 2 Tim 2:15 says "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. " In rightly dividing the word of God we must understand the difference between the Old Testament and New Testament, understand the context of what is being said and asking questions such as who is speaking, to whom are they speaking, why, how, etc. When people think they can just pick up the Bible, accept the parts they like and reject the rest, they are doomed. God’s word is "right right" and not what we think. Sadly there are many like Leonard Pitts Jr. D.T.