47%. That is the percentage of Americans who say they belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque. That is according to a new Gallup survey analysis which was released on March 29, 2021 (Time, April 12/April 19, 2021). That is the lowest percentage of Americans who report they are religiously affiliated in the eight decades that Gallup has been surveying the issue. Apparently, less than half of Americans believe that organized religion is relevant to their lives.

I can understand why. There are a lot of organized religious groups that I would stay away from. Some religious groups have given religion a bad name. Those that are so intolerant, close-minded, judgmental, condemning, holier-than-thou, and smugly superior. Those that follow the letter of the law (as they conceive it), instead of following God’s message for our lives. Those who have turned the Bible into a catalogue of “do’s” and “don’ts,” mostly don’ts. I would not belong to a group like that.

Part of the problem is related to biblical interpretation. Some people interpret the Bible as a proof-text for their own vision of morality. They quote isolated verses out of context, or they fail to distinguish between cultural conditions and God’s eternal truth. They fail to recognize that not every passage of scripture is of equal value. They do not discern that some parts of the Bible are more important than other parts.

One of the underlying principles of “spelunking scripture” is the recognition that the Bible contains many passages that reflect the underlying cultures of the time, while other passages reflect God’s purpose for our lives. In the Introduction to Spelunking Scripture: The Letters of Paul, I note how the Bible has been used to justify slavery and the subjugation of women and the condemnation of persons of a different sexual orientation.

What then are the most important passages of scripture? For Christians, it is those that are related to Jesus. What Jesus taught and did are our examples of how God wants us to live. One verse comes to mind that could be the theme verse for Jesus’ life – Mark 10:45 (and its parallel, Matthew 20:20):

(45) for the Human One didn’t come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people.” (CEB)

While Luke does not quote that verse verbatim, he gives the same idea in Luke 22:24-27. In John 13:1-17, Jesus gave a demonstration of that verse when he washed his disciples’ feet. His life was a life of service, and that is how we are called to live.

Of course, churches are called to be more than social service agencies. The second chapter of the forthcoming book, Spelunking Scripture: The Gospels, focuses on The Greatest Commandments as found in Matthew 22:37-39, namely, to love God with all that we are, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. This also could be a theme passage for Jesus’ life, and for the way that God wants us to live.

In the series of Spelunking Scripture books, I identify some of the most important passages of the Bible. Another purpose of the books is to draw connections between those passages and our lives today. In other words, the books seek to explore how those important scripture passages are relevant to us. My contention is that churches that seek to follow the example of Jesus will be relevant too.