Enduring Value of Childhood Bible Stories

 by V. Wayne Sorge

Even though I have no conviction that a real Adam and real Eve existed, I still value the story that I believe to be inspired in the Hebrew Bible of humanity's creation. I remember my mother had an old black flannel board for telling Bible stories to children. She died in a car accident when I was four, but I took possession of her story materials and often told the stories to
my friends, real and imaginary.

My favorite was the Creation Story which showed the sun, the moon and the earth and sea as well as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The story always told of the fall, of Cain and Abel and of the beginning of civilization. Early human communities needed a coherent story for how they became to be that would be easy to tell and read is a truth beyond a literal truth in the stories.

There are some who use narrow interpretation of Biblical faith to exclude what they condemn any progressive views that they label as the Social Gospel, sometimes deriding such early twentieth century prophets as Walter Rauschenbusch and Shailer Mathews. One longtime friend of mine who is a fundamentalist minister told me that Rauschenbusch had started the Social Gospel and claimed it was a contradiction to the teachings of Jesus.

He quoted Matthew 28:19 suggested that the great commission which speaks of making them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost precludes what he called the everything that Jesus had commanded them. That includes all the instances of healing, caring, feeding, defending and helping the oppressed and outcast. How anyone can use the Great Commission to the Church as a means to avoid social responsibility is beyond me.

But the more I think about it the more I think Rauschenbusch would likely disavow any credit for starting the Social Gospel. I do not believe he deserves credit for starting it, as he merely emphasized what he found in scripture. Rauschenbusch spoke of the ministry of Jesus saying extends to all human needs and powers and relations.

That call to care for one another is rooted in the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you, but also extending back to the beginning of scripture and the Creation story. I contend that from time in that story, when God created Eve there was Social Gospel. My contention is that if someone believes God created Eve simply as a companion for the pleasure of the man, that person becomes a fundamentalist.

 If one believes that God created the two for one another, that's the beginning of the Social Gospel. Care for one is self expanding Social Gospel that reflects our responsibility as part of the Kingdom of God. Our
understanding of what that involves should be expanding rather than contracting.

God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, but we who believe are maturing creatures who should have a faith that begins with those stories of childhood, but expands in our ongoing potential for Christian understanding and service.

(This story was from the late and very great V. Wayne Sorge, a fellow seminarian and friend of mine gone too soon. He was a journalist and author, a decent man in a ruinous world and a Christian with something to say. I miss him a great deal. -- Rev. Jim Purcell)