Little Sister Theology

By Nadia, former Vox Pop columnist.

My two little sisters, 13 and 9, love Jesus. And like many kids, they are quite profound and simple in their faith. I love listening to them talk about what they believe.

Marie, my 13-year-old sister, and I are snuggled up enjoying the snow out the window in the middle of the afternoon. It’s naptime - I’m furiously typing papers on my laptop, she’s reading Nancy Drew - “the spookiest one you can find!”

Marie: What are you working on?
Me: Papers for church.
Marie: Oh.
Me: Hey, Marie, what do you think: can women be pastors? Is it a good or a bad thing?
Marie: (Pause.) I don’t really want to talk about it.
Me: Why not?
Marie: Because I don’t think they should be and Claire and Emma always want to argue about it with me, because they think women should be anything they want. Well, I don’t know about Emma, she kind of just listens to whatever Claire tells her.
Me: I won’t argue. I just want to know why you think that.
Marie: (pained look)
Me: OK, just so you know, I don’t think they should be either, but I just want to hear your reasons why.
Marie: (visibly relieved) In the Bible - well, I read the Bible and the women are never in charge of everything, it’s always the guys. I just don’t think they should be pastors and in charge of stuff like that.
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We are sitting as a family around the dinner table. Because our conversation inevitably goes downhill, in my Dad’s opinion, he has decided to pull out a large book of theology to read at the dinner table and comandeer the conversation. We, being typical fallen offspring, sigh and roll our eyes for the first five minutes. But we end up listening because that’s all there is to do. Afterwards, my then 9-year-old sister Emma raises her hand.

Dad: . . . what this author is saying is that if you apply this set of rules to interpretation of the Bible it will eliminate all the things that appear inconsistent. Because the Bible doesn’t contradict itself, it’s just a question of correctly interpreting passages.
Emma: I have a question.
Dad: Yes?
Emma: So, there’s a verse in the Bible that says God HATES everyone who does evil.
Dad: Yes.
Emma: But John 3:16 says that God LOVED the WHOLE WORLD.
Dad: Yes.
Emma: And, I think probably everyone in the whole world has done at least one sin, do you think so?
Dad: Yes, the Bible says everyone has sinned.
Emma: Yeah, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Dad: Yep.
Emma: Well, sin is evil, right?
Dad: Right.
Emma: OK. so, if God hates everyone who does evil, and everyone in the whole world has sinned, and sin is evil, then you . . . squish all those things together, it seems to me that God has to hate everyone in the whole world.
Dad: But it says that God loved the whole world.
Emma: Yeah, that’s why I am asking. it seems kinda like it’s trampolining.
Dad: What?
Emma: You know, that the Bible is bouncing back and forth.
Dad: Well, that’s why you need to be careful in interpreting the Bible correctly.
Emma: Ohhhh. (pause) I don’t think that really answers my question.
Dad: Well, if you interpret the words in their historical context–
Emma: What’s unterpeting?
Dad: Interpreting?
Emma: Yeah, that.