:: Getting on my Soapbox::
It seems that many (not all) Christians and Christian groups use the Bible to justify their horrible actions, most notable in recent years has been gay bashing. My question is how can some sins be worse then other sins.. I'm not a religious person but my understanding is that all sin is bad... so why do some Christians/Churches choose to gravitate and enforce some sins but over look so many more. First of all here is the passage from the bible about homosexuality.
Leviticus 20:13 "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
So according to the Bible and God all gay people should be put to death. I guess we should be happy that they only call us names, make horrible signs and websites and tell us will be burning in hell for eternity.
But my real question is why doesn't the Church enforce these other wonderful laws/sins from Leviticus??
Don't have a variety of crops on the same field. (Leviticus 19:19)
Don't wear clothes made of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19)
Don't cut your hair nor shave. (Leviticus 19:27)
Any person who curseth his mother or father, must be killed. (Leviticus 20:9)
If a man cheats on his wife, or vise versa, both the man and the woman must die. (Leviticus 20:10)
If a man sleeps with his father's wife... both him and his father's wife is to be put to death. (Leviticus 20:11)
If a man sleeps with his wife and her mother they are all to be burnt to death. (Leviticus 20:14)
If a man has sex with a woman on her period, they are both to be "cut off from their people" (Leviticus 20:18)
Psychics, wizards, and so on are to be stoned to death. (Leviticus 20:27)
If a priest's daughter is a whore, she is to be burnt at the stake. (Leviticus 21:9)
People who have flat noses, or is blind or lame, cannot go to an altar of God (Leviticus 21:17-18)
Anyone who curses or blasphemes God, should be stoned to death by the community. (Leviticus 24:14-16)
God seems to want to kill/stone/burn alot of people, but doesn't that go against one of the ten commandments #6 Thou Shall Not Kill.... Seems like a contridiction to me.
What I don't understand and the main reason I am doing this blog.. is why Religious folks pick and choose what they will and won't follow from the Bible. How can one sin be worse then another sin.
I'm not bashing Religion or Christians, some of my best friends are very religious and I respect them and their beliefs 100% but what I don't like is how some Ultra right / Ultra Conservative Religious folks use the Bible to justify their hate and their actions.
:: Getting off my Soapbox::
Sorry for the rant.. but this topic has always bothered me and I wanted to get it out there on my blog.
I'm agnostic, but was raised by a Christian family. The contradictions within Christianity are distressing indeed, but the point you make is flawed by Christian standards. Leviticus is in the Old Testament. Jesus explains, on several occasions, that Old Testament laws were to be practiced by the Israelites/Jews until he had come to absolve sins.
ReplyDeleteQuite simply, any extremist will latch onto anything that supports their existing viewpoint, and ignore anything that does not. Like a lawyer, they'll repeat their supporting arguments over and over, and conveniently ignore anything that contradicts they're view. Their goal is not to be fair or to be objective, but to further their own goals/fears/bigotry.
ReplyDeleteModerates are more likely to weight the various arguments/evidence and come to a more balanced decision. However, sensationalism spreads faster and further than reason, so moderate viewpoints are always more difficult to spread than extremist viewpoints.
Which makes it all the more important for reasonable people to talk about their beliefs more often, and to the right audiences (ie, those who would otherwise base their opinions on extremist rhetoric because it's the only viewpoint they hear).
-> To the anonymous poster above, the New/Old testament argument doesn't invalidate the argument. It just rephrases it to "why would the Jesus sacrifice invalidate some old-testament sins but not others."
Because the entire compendium should be looked at for what it is, a set of rules made by people. Nothing in the book makes any sense except in the light of its origins, and I don't mean the claim that its divinely inspired (for which the known evidence is very strongly negative, Genesis and the flood are both good examples).
ReplyDeleteIn short, because it's bullshit and its claims should not be taken seriously as a representation of reality.
"why Religious folks pick and choose what they will and won't follow from the Bible".
ReplyDeleteCause if they don't, they'd have to burn people at the steak, offer burnt offerings (animals) to god, stone people, etc..
So luckily mainstream Christianity (and other Abrahamic religions) evolve over time, getting watered down. I'm pretty sure most of the passages you've mentioned never get read out loud in a mainstream church.
But it kinda makes you wonder what parts they removed from the bible, when stuff like that get's left behind :)
Steak... lol =)
ReplyDeleteI am a Christian. And I know for a fact HATEING gays is a big error. Many Christians make a mistake by thinking the Bible is Gods words. I is a compilation of mens thoughts or what men want Christians to do. God tells me that HATING is big error we make.
ReplyDeleteMany Christians think the Bible is 100% God. It is not. The earth was not made in 7 days. Many Christians don't beleve in evolution. I say to them evolution is God's tool. Science is a gift from God to help us understand the Truth.
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