The Bible is the holy book for Christians, and its teachings play a significant role in shaping the moral values in a society. Nonetheless, it is widely misinterpreted for lack of proper knowledge and spiritual discernment, while others misinterpret it for personal gains. Such incidences express negative social implications. Firstly, these incidences prompt the Bible to lose its clear meaning to many people. Such an assumption is socially wrong because the fact that a specific bible extract is intentionally misunderstood does not necessarily mean that the author did not have a definite meaning in mind. Similarly, it does not mean that every other reader cannot discern the purpose of this particular context.
Douglas notes that some Bible sections played a role in justifying slavery. Accordingly, the Bible readers with insufficient discernment ability will ultimately misunderstand the Bible and hence misinterpret it (Douglass, (2019). Resultantly, most of them end up relying on religious leaders such as pastors and clergies to interpret the passages for them. Considerably, some clergies may take the advantage to interpret these passages based on their interests while the followers blindly believe them, as they are held slavery to their interpretations.
Notably, failure to correctly interpret the scriptures is profoundly doomed in the New Testament as in 2 Peter 3:15 – 17. It is ironic in the modern society that clergies embrace ignorance to twist the scripture meaning in the quest to have personal gains, as witnessed in the media channels such as the television. For instance, the Bible teaches believers to uphold righteousness and flee from evil. Nonetheless, some corrupt clergies use the scripture in Ecclesiastes 7:20, which says that there is no righteous man on earth to justify their evil practices (Douglass, (2019). Some fight for church leadership positions to maintain fame and financial gains through offerings and tithes from followers.
Recent exposes in Africa for instance have shown how men of the cloth have managed to create entire religions based on these interpretations, some becoming full blown cults. I.e. the expose by BBC on revered Nigerian Televangelist and that of a Kenyan Preacher who allegedly led hundreds into the forest to fast till death is a clear illustration of how twisted faith can be harmful to a decent society.
References
Douglass, F. (2019). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Dreamscape Media, LLC.