Whose Fall Is It Anyway? Eve & the Serpent -- Genesis 3

<p>Diving into Genesis stories again, in this episode, Liam offers us a different view of the so-called Fall story found in Genesis 3. Reading the encounter between Eve and the serpent in a new way, and drawing on <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashi'>Rash</a>i and his commentary on the story, Liam invites us to see the story as a trauma story, first, and then poses the question of who really sinned, Eve or the Serpent. </p> <p>As often happens, Don and Liam raise more questions through the conversation. Still, they invite us to look deeply at our relationship to creation, our relationships with one another, and how we respond to those among us who have suffered the fracturing of trust.</p> <p> Then, as is the Bible Bash custom, Don closes with another text. This time, he shares thoughts from a wise Quaker elder, Dorothy H. Hutchinson.</p> <p>A Painful Discrepancy</p> <p>The basis of Friends’ social concerns is the same as the basis of Quakerism as a whole – the belief of the within-ness of God. This is not original with Friends. Many other groups have believe that God is within, as well as above and beyond us. However, the emphasis on the within-ness of God in all human beings, in the capacity of the individual to communicate directly with God, to experience the spirit of Christ and express it in every aspect of life has led us to adopt patterns of behavior which may be considered distinctively Quaker.</p> <p>This is the spiritual basis of the Friends’ distinctive form of meeting for worship – waiting in the Light for direct revelation of God’s will for us. It is  the basis for the distinctive for of meeting for business – seeking unity in the Spirit. And it is the basis for all the social testimonies. For centuries Friends have been exploring the application of this belief in the within-ness of God in all of us to the problems of human relations and the end is certainly not yet.</p> <p>A Quaker social concern seems characteristically to arise in a sensitive individual or very small group