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Many people disagree with lesbians, gays, bisexuals or
transgendered folk living our lives in the way we
want to. Often they use
the
Bible as a weapon
against us.
This is
appalling as the Bible
was
never intended to be used in this way. The Bible
never discusses
sexual
orientation as such; neither
does it discuss gender
re-assignment. The Bible
verses used to condemn and reject lesbian,
gay and
transgendered people
are twisted out of context, distorted and
incorrectly translated to hurt people. No
reference to sexual
orientation or gender identity
exists in the Bible.
Despite this
many
Christians tell us to
"obey" or "follow" the Bible. This article
gives you some questions to ask your friends when
they start to quote the
Bible
at you. We suspect you
will have some fun with
this........
There
are many problems
with taking the Bible
entirely
literally.......
Pleasing Odours
When I burn a bull on
the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a
pleasing odour for the Lord
(Leviticus 1:9). The
problem
is that my neighbours don't think it is a
pleasing odour.....I wonder if
I should smite
them.
Slavery
I would like to sell my niece
into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7 but
I
really don't know, in
this
day and age, what would
be a fair price for
her........
Unclean
Women
I know that I am
allowed no contact with a
woman while she is in her
period of menstrual
uncleanliness (Leviticus 15:
19-24). The problem I have is knowing when a
woman
is having her period. I
have tried asking but most women seem to
resent
being asked.......
Keeping the
Sabbath
I have a neighbour
who insists on working
on the
Sabbath. Exodus 35:2
states that he should be put to
death. I can't
work
out if I
am morally obliged to kill him
myself......
Hair Styles &
Tattoos
Most of my
male
friends get their hair
trimmed, some of them have it trimmed very
severely
indeed. Some of my friends have some very
nice
tattoos. These are
expressly forbidden in
Leviticus 19: 27-28 and I wonder how they should
die.......
It's hard to be a
farmer
My uncle has
a farm.
He violates Leviticus
19:19 by planting two different crops in the
same
field, as does his wife by wearing garments
made of
two different
kinds of thread. He also tends
to swear and blaspheme a lot. I wonder if
it is
really necessary that we
go to the trouble of getting the whole town
together
to stone them as required in Leviticus 24:
10-16. I
feel sure we
could just burn them to death
at a private family affair like we do with
people
who sleep with their
in-laws as proscribed in Leviticus
20:14.
After a few of these
you may have made
your
point! The Bible is a
wonderful book which
Christians believe
is both
inspired by God but also written by humans. As
Christians we have
to discern the Word of God in the
midst of those
human words.
You
might also find this YouTube clip from the West Wing television
drama interesting. In the
clip, President Bartlett
challenges the
homophobic
broadcasting of a radio talk-show
presenter. The script
for this
sequence echoes many of the
biblical
inconsistencies
described above.
But What
About
the New Testament?
Of course
Christians might claim
that
all these Laws no longer
apply as the New Testament
is our rule of
faith.
However
the Book of Acts, chapter 15 - in the New Testament -
commands all Christians to abstain from meat which
has blood in it or
which comes
from a strangled
animal. Most Christians, however,
do not
condemn the
eating of
rare steak or turkey at Christmas!
So Is The
Bible
True?
Of course it is. The
Bible is
a unique record of
the historical basis of our faith and contains
the
Word of God. The task of Christians is to
separate
out the words of
God and the words of
people who spoke and wrote in ways no longer
appropriate to our
culture. The Bible is a
liberating book if
understood correctly.
However, it can be dangerous if used as a tool
to
hurt and oppress others.
Like all valuable things, the Bible has to be
understood and used correctly.
True
Freedom
The
Metropolitan Community
Church is a Christian
church routed in and reaching
beyond the lesbian, bisexual, gay and
transgendered
communities. In the Metropolitan Community
Church we
welcome all people without bias or
prejudice. We
seek to help people
discover a personal relationship
with God and to nurture these
relationships as we
all seek
to become better disciples of Jesus.
We invite you read through the following short articles
which offer some more detailed insights into this
whole area of "The
Bible
says...".
The seven deadly
texts - Interpretations
of:
Some surprising things to ponder - What does
textual study tell us about Ruth and Naomi,
David and Jonathan, the
centurion and his slave?
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