I respectfully disagree with both of these statements. I don’t know your co-worker, but I would bet that he knows the HR rules about politics and religion, and felt like they didn’t apply to his invitation. Bad judgment. As for trying to convert you, even if he didn’t, can you say the same for all the other members of the group?
My limited experience with people who invite other people into such groups is that some of them will always try to convert you. If you think they are interested in hearing anything about your side of anything, I believe you are doomed to disappointment.
If you want to find out about different perspectives on scriptures, I think a lot safer way to do that would be to read about them online. You could even start a Dope thread.
You’d miss out on the accents; but if you started to realize you were in a minefield, it would be a lot easier to get back out again. And if you really want the accents, I’m sure there’s videos.
I would join a Classical Greek or Classical Hebrew study group, but if you join a Christian scripture discussion group… actually, I can see that, but it had better be serious and not a cult meeting.
One of my (virtual) acquaintances from a different message board is also a Presbyterian minister. I’m an atheist, too (or at least, an agnostic) but we’ve had many pleasant conversations, including about accounts I’ve read about the historical Jesus who is pictured as a political revolutionary and not a religious figure at all, and he was completely accepting of that interpretation. His spirituality was much more nuanced than the typical dogmatism of any religion, and I found that extremely admirable. I got the strong impression that his role in life, his concept of the purpose of his ministry, rather than Bible-thumping attempts to convert others to his beliefs, was simply to bring comfort to those who needed comforting. He shined of such virtue that it was almost enough to make me religious again.
If you’re hostile to religion and have all this mockery in your head about the offer, why would you even consider going? Just to have a laugh at someone who reached out to make a social connection with you?
You could be candid and say “thanks, but I’m not a believer and not interested in the Bible at all.” Or if you feel they wouldn’t leave it there, you could simply say “sorry, I have a conflict” and move on.
Sometimes in life, if you’re someone who seems worth hanging out with, you’ll get invitations that aren’t interesting. There’s no need to mock someone who’s just trying to include you in something they feel is a good thing. Politely decline and move on.
Bible “study” is a term for Christian worship. I’d bet a few metaphorical dollars that they’ll begin the class with a prayer.
No, you won’t be actively converted, but you can pretty well presume that everybody in that group will assume the literal truth of Jesus’ resurrection. If you don’t match that perspective (and I, for one, do not), there’s no good reason to join the group.
It’d be like going to a Sherlock Holmes book club knowing that all of the participants think he’s a real person. I guess you could decide to suspend your belief while you were there, but it wouldn’t sit well with your knowledge of the authorship of Arthur Conan Doyle.
I imagine they each use their own. There’s nothing especially difficult about doing that. As someone mentioned above, differences in translation can be an interesting point for discussion. And everyone knows that different groups have canonized different books. You just need to pick a reading that everyone is interested in. (Jews recognize many of the non-canonical books as Bible-adjacent, for instance. I mean, Jews obviously reject the new testament, and wouldn’t generally join a Christian Bible study group, because the perspective is just too different. But they read stuff that’s not on the Bible, like the story of Hanukkah.) I would expect different Christian groups to have no trouble finding suitable texts to discuss. And it sounds like all the people in that study group are members of liturgical traditions, so they’d have similar takes on how to approach the Bible.
But also, if the OP doesn’t already know the answer to this question, there’s no way to find out that’s not super awkward.
I really don’t think asking “By the way, what version of the Bible is used?” is that super awkward, if you think that asking a coworker to join a Bible study group is probably o.k.
Then wonder to your heart’s content. It is totally legit to ask if that diverse group of believers is using a common religious text (which might indicate that a particular viewpoint is being studied), or different religious texts followed by people of different religious beliefs (which might lead one to believe that the differences and similarities between them are being discussed). If the OP is still wondering about joining this group, it is a very legitimate question.
That would be more information than the OP is currently posting, that’s for sure. There aren’t many Bible study groups out there that work like book clubs in that, if you went to a book club studying The Iliad and they insisted that the book was a true story that was divinely inspired, you would certainly question that group.
The people mentioned in the OP, Catholic, Anglican, Greek Orthodox (and others)-would you say that the different religious texts they follow are merely different translation of the same book? I think it is a disservice to their real differences in text and context to make that claim.
Do you think it’s against the rules for someone to invite their co-worker to an outside-of-work social event? In my 30+ years of employment I’ve never once seen or heard of such a thing.