Bible Morality

  • Cherry-Picking What You Like



    Anti-gay christians love to quote the bits of the OT that support their bigotry.


    But for some reason, they don't want to apply ALL the OT directives

Exodus 21

Psalm 137

  • What do you mean, cities don't have elders, or gates anymore? This is God's perfect word, and he knows the future. He wouldn't make a mistake like that.

Oh but Jesus made it all good

    The standard response to that is that because of Jesus we don't have to obey the OT rules.

    But 2 big problems with this argument:

    1. Jesus himself contradicted it:

    2. If we aren't bound by these rules, why are you quoting them to justify your bigotry?

Cherry Picking The New Testament

  • Here is a list of New Testament verses Christians tend not to follow.

    1st Corinthians 14:34 "The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak."

    1st Peter 3:3 "You should not use outward aids to make yourselves beautiful, such as the way you fix your hair, or the jewelry you put on, or the dresses you wear."

    Matthew 5:42 "Give to those who ask, and don't refuse those who wish to borrow from you."

    Matthew 6:6 "When you pray, go to your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father... in that secret place."

    Matthew 5:32 "Whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery." ALSO Matthew 5:28-30 "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Remember, not committing adultery is one of the ten commandments...admittedly, you're saying Christians don't follow the old testament, where the commandments come from [Exodus and Deuteronomy], but are you arguing therefore the commandments have no value in modern day Christianity?)

    1 Corinthians 11:6 "For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off."

    1 Timothy 2:11-14 "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."

    1 Timothy 2:9 "women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire"

    1 Peter 2:18 "Slaves, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and equitable but also to those who are perverse."

    The New Testament is incredibly sexist, and regressive. Normally, I wouldn't give one half of a rat's ass about people's inconsistent, misinformed, retrograde, hypocritical belief systems, but when they use said beliefs as a means of subjugating other people, in a first world democracy that they claim is awesome for its freedoms no less, well then you have to point out that they have no leg to stand on, because they themselves don't follow the sacred code they claim is so important that they have the right to discriminate against/punish/scold people for not following it.

How many examples do you need?

  • These are folks who are selectively faithful to the very book that they claim forms their reason to hate on ghey folks, and you're surprised that they aren't terribly faithful to their nation, their oaths to that nation, to its flag and principles?

    They have made exceptions to the prohibitions against theft and adultery, and even honoring their mothers and fathers, and making false oaths. That's just in the Big Ten Cs. Leviticus has a lot of bans. No shellfish, no haircuts on the sides, no trimming of beards, no tattoos, no reaping their fields in their entirety, no sale of land into perpetuity, no treating foreigners poorly, but apparently, with ALL those bans, they ghey is the Big One. It's not terribly hard to see that they're reading selectively in their own Scripture, ignoring all that fluff about forgiveness, compassion, and loving kindness, and folks are surprised that they want to play "original intention" with law? These are folks who are more than happy to accept a revision to the Torah, and hold THAT as being the New Hotness, while then using the argument that the Bible doesn't like gheys, so that should be what they follow.

    It's not about homosexuals. It's not about faith. Those are just excuses. And it's long past time to call them on that. It's not about "religious freedom" as they certainly would like to deny OTHERS' their religious freedom, they just want the excuse, so that they can cloak their bigotry as something else, other than, "We're really hoping to keep some scapegoats to blame all our bad sh*t on, because if we look too close at ourselves, we find that we're really wanting in the virtues department."

    If it were about faith, then it would be our Jewish brethren and sistren leading this fight against marriage equality, and looking down on gay and lesbian folks. If it were about faith, then they'd be screaming for the heads of those who commit adultery, those who steal, and those who swear false oaths, but instead, they look to make them heroes of their cause, despite their breaking the Ten Commandments. And since I don't see a the same folks who are screaming about the gheys likewise screaming about divorce, adultery, theft, and the swearing of false oaths, I have to conclude, that the cherry picking ISN'T about faith, but looking for ANY excuse to find someone to look down upon.

    Christianity has a wonderful capacity for forgiveness and charity. Some of the kindest, most loving and most generous folks with the biggest damn hearts that I know of, belong to Christians. People who live their faith every day, with gladness in their hearts, with open arms for everyone they come across. Gay, straight, black, white, brown, laden by their own sins, flawed and hurting, it doesn't matter, they bring them to the table, and smile and open their homes to them. These people bring folks together, and that openness, that fullness of spirit, that draws folks in. That faith, not just in their own deity, but in men and women around them, that is amazing to behold. They don't use their faith as an excuse, but lets their faith drive them forward to be better people. They take the message of compassion and love, and they live it.

    Others, they just wear their faith like it's a coat. Something to pull on, and they don't live their faith, they just want the style, they want the covering, without any of the duties and any of the work. And that is damn sad, because it demeans the message of their faith, and twists it. They do their own faith more disservice, than any atheist or other faith might do, because they don't believe in it enough, to let it shine through. They instead want to wear their faith to use it, to wield it as a weapon against those that they just find distasteful, or simply in the way, and they ignore the power of the message of their faith, and that dishonors their faith more than anything someone might utter as a casual swear or simply living their lives without said faith. That betrayal, that is far more harmful, and tarnishes their faith more than anything a gay pride parade, or two folks walking down an aisle to marry could ever do.

    (credit to hubiestubert on Fark 09.05.15)

Hitchens

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