How to read ethically

To read ethically, one must decide not to allow presuppositions, culture, experience and other characteristics and stereotypes to dictate what is taken away from what is being studied or read. Additionally, in order for the reader to reader ethically, it would be important to recognize that the characters being read about are (were) real and so not gloss over the material as though their contributors to the story did not have real lives. Based on the material read in Reading as if, eithical reading suggests caution against being overly critical about what one reads because such an approach can lead to maligning and denegrading a culture and its people. In my opinion, reading ethically is a way to allow for fresh perspectives to be brought on a piece of material. Many clergypersons believe that the interpretation of a particular scripture in the nineteen century continues to be applicable in the twenty-first century. Here is where I believe that reading the text ethically allows for interpretation that will bring the hearer/reader to a place where the text speaks to their current situation. For example, in the story of the woman at the well, the explanation has always been that the woman "slept around"; however, reading this story ethically may allow for an interpretation that suggests that all "her husbands" had walked away from her and that because she was poor she kept getting into these relationships as a way to survive.