Steven Colbert - Pretend or Admit

In this classic quip from comedian Steven Colbert, he comedically makes a very serious point. (Kudos to the person who put the moving text to the original audio)



So which do we choose - pretend or admit? (Or can we choose obey?)

As Soren Keirkgaard (not a comedian, but a theologian with a rather dry wit) put it many years before:

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined.

Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close.

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