"...Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?" (from Luke 6:39)
Bradley Jay hosts a radio talk show during the "very early morning hours" on Boston's WBZ which is located at 1030 on the AM dial, and of course can be heard over the internet all over the world. (The show airs from Midnight to 5 a.m. Eastern time.) I have never listened to an entire broadcast of "Jay Talking" as it's formally called. I sometimes hear the first few minutes, but most often, I listen from about 3:45 to about 4:30.
Several times over the past few weeks, Bradley has brought up the topic of "religion". His main focus has been stating "the parts of the Bible that man made up" as compared with "the matters that really came from God". Most of my readers know I'm an Ordained Assemblies of God minister, and that prior to my Ordination, I was a seriously committed Christian layperson. I will say bluntly that much of what Bradley has had to say has been "off the wall". Lest anyone complain that I'm writing about Bradley Jay behind his back and that I should say all of these things to him, please be assured that I have. I've actually written Bradley Jay two letters over the past few months, and I've sent them to him via U.S. mail. In the letters, I address various matters he's brought up on the show, including religious matters. He has not responded. In fact, as bothersome as it is to hear an arrogant and self-appointed guy give a completely absurd rendition of Christianity and the Bible over the airwaves, the callers who respond to him usually make statements that are far more erroneous than anything he has to say!
Last night (or was it this morning?) he focused on the Ten Commandments. Bradley proclaimed which commandments were from God and which commandments weren't from God. No, there were not any lightning bolts that hit the 1170 Soldiers Field Road facility in Boston's Allston neighborhood around 4 a.m., but that's because God is a God of love, patience, and mercy! Bradley eliminated "Thou Shalt Not Covet" as well as "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery". Oh, and, the thing about not making any "Graven Image" got short shrift from him. I thought it was comical that during the 3 a.m. hour he threw out "Thou Shalt Not Covet" but that during the 4 a.m. hour, he decided he liked "Thou Shalt Not Covet" after all, so that made it back onto the list of Commandments From God. A female caller ran her mouth against "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" bringing out the fact that a lot of Biblical characters did commit adultery (and hey, a lot of them did! ) but she had some wrong information. She stated that Abraham had relations with a concubine and that this union produced the promised son Isaac. Wrong! Isaac, the promised son, was born of Abraham's wife Sarah during her old age. (Yes, his birth was a miracle as she was long past menopause.)
Lest anybody get the wrong idea, in some respects I do like Bradley Jay. His best shows are the programs in which he talks about the international and domestic trips he has taken on his vacations, and the programs in which he's told interesting stories from his youth. Regarding religion, Bradley's like most New Englanders: He hasn't got a clue! I honestly thought about calling Bradley and speaking to him over the air, but I was half asleep and would have preferred to have some notes in place in front of me to which I could refer. I did not want to be made to look foolish by him. One thing I would have said to him is that his conversation today reminded me so much of a conversation Jesus had with the Sadducees in Matthew chapter twenty-two. The Sadducees did not believe in angels and the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection of the dead. I imagine that when they came to Jesus in an attempt to try to make Him look foolish, they must have sounded a lot like Bradley Jay! The Old Testament Law stated that if a man died and his wife was childless, his brother was to marry her to raise up descendants for the deceased. The Sadducees claimed that there were seven brothers. Due to this Old Testament Law, each was married to her! One would die, then she'd marry the next, then he would die and she'd marry the next, and so on! It ended up that she was married to all of them. Their Bradley Jay style question was: In the Resurrection, who will she be married to, for she had each of them as a husband? Jesus replied:
"...Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God." (from Matthew 22:29).
Amen and amen!
That's Bradley's problem, and the problem of those like him. They greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. Bradley thinks life should be a matter of people just being good and doing good. In this month in which we celebrate the Nativity, I wonder if Bradley has any idea why God sent His Son into this world? A thorough reading of the New Testament reveals that only perfect people go to Heaven. The purpose of the Ten Commandments, in fact, was to show us, how far short we fall; that we are sinners; that we have failed; that we can't and don't measure up. They were to show us that no matter how good we are, it's never good enough. Jesus Christ came to pay the penalty for our sins- to be our Atonement. If we put our trust in Him, then due to His righteousness and not ours, we go to Heaven when we die. (See Galatians 3:24 which tells us the Law was our "schoolmaster" [or "tutor"] to bring us to Christ. See also Ephesians 2:8-9 and John's Gospel 1:12.)
To Bradley Jay, I would say: Stick to the travel/vacation stories! If you want to discuss the Bible, have someone like your friend "Father Brian" on to discuss the Bible with you. And, Merry Christmas!
EMMYS 1966: The Dick Van Dyke Show (season 5)
4 years ago
3 comments:
While there's a discussion to be had about which Commandments count in the ten (the Jews, Catholics, and Protestants all count them differently), it's foolish to just make a blanket statement that some weren't from God. The whole point of the Ten Commandments is that they came direct from the mouth of God (and later the finger of God).
People hate the adultery thing and the covet thing for one reason: they like sex. So they jump through hoops of reasoning to pick and choose the scriptures they like so they can have sex whenever, however, and with whomever they like. Sex is great, but it has a time and place ordained by God.
I recall an Ally McBeal episode where the preacher confessed he didn't get why covet was even in there. But publicly he used it to segue into prior commandments, saying "thou shalt not covet" was really saying "don't even think it." While that has a certain appeal, there's another school of thought that interprets the covet commandement(s?) specifically. The scripture doesn't put a period after covet, but that you shall not covet anything that is your neighbor's. So it's not bad to want stuff, you just shouldn't obsessively want what your neighbor has. Indeed, that does make a gateway to theft, adultery, and possibly even murder. But as a kid, I was just sort of taught don't want stuff, which was kind of confusing.
There's definitely adultery in the Bible; but God doesn't condone it. The Bible also uses the term broadly in matters of divorce; as long as the married parties are still alive, any coupling outside of that marriage is adultery even if they divorced (with some minor exceptions in a couple of places). When Jesus speaks against divorce, a primary reason subtextually is that guys wanted to divorce their wives so they could marry someone else. This happens all the time these days, and it is primarily (though not exclusively) that circumstance Jesus was addressing. In Old Testament days, a lot of guys would just marry multiple women. That's not adultery (unless they were formerly other men's wives who are still living), even if it's not ideal.
Great post and good points. The whole purpose the the 10 Commandments was to show us that no one could do it and therefore, we need a Savior. Bradley Jay needs to do a little more digging. Yes Abraham did have a child with his concubine but it was also before there was a "law" against adultery. That came with Moses many years later. Even though it wasn't against the law, it still didn't work out very well and I wonder if in hindsight, Abraham and Sarah both regretted that decision. Hope you get a chance to talk with him sometime, it could be a great conversation.
It's part of the dumbing down at bz.Bradley Jay trashes religion when the phone stops ringing. He knows it's a hot button issue and people will call. Last week he actually wondered aloud how many Catholic priests believe in God. That was the last straw for me as I now listen to anything except that program.
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