At the beginning of this interesting story about the Quiverfull Movement, Evangelicals who make the cardinal mistake of believing that children follow their parents’ in lockstep for life, Barbara Bradley Haggerty notes that the entire movement is built out of a literal interpretation of a metaphor in Psalm 127. Despite that fact, she concludes the story with the following observation about a singalong: “They sing Psalm 127—a song that seems written just for them.” Which is to say, she gets it precisely backwards. Their lives are written for the psalm, not the other way around.
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But, this is true for most Christians, is it not? Raised and immersed in special texts which shape the life to be interpreted in light of those special texts?
by GKB—Mar 25, 01:14 PM
As you put it, yes, though not just Christians—everyone who holds a text sacred. The scripture molds the mind and the mind molds to scripture; meaning and understanding are layered over time.
But when you lay the process out as linearly as BBH does (her interview subjects read the scripture, then molded their lives to match it) it’s disconcerting to suddenly turn that linear progression on its head at the end.
by greg—Mar 25, 01:29 PM