Throughout recorded history, the death toll from wars of religion and religious based hate is immense. Indeed, other that disease and perhaps Stalin's manufactured famine in the 1930's and World War II, religion is likely the world's largest all time cause of needless deaths. Yet some outlets within the supposedly "liberal media" continues to give a platform for those who advocate hatred based on profesed religious belief. The Washington Post has done so with haters such as Tony Perkins - as has USA Today and now, CNN which ran a story entitled "The Bible really does condemn homosexuality." Never mind that the terrorists who flew airliners into the World Trade Center nearly a decade ago made like minded claims from passages in the Koran to justify their savagery. *
One can only wonder how many gay hating bigots will now cling to their Bible and a copy of the CNN story and feel fully justified in violence against gays. It's far past time that all legitimate news outlets stop underwriting hate and violence based on selectively parsed passages from a antiquated and ignorance based assemblage of writings that have been cynically manipulated over the centuries. Moreover, IF the views of the author of the CNN op-ed, Robert A. J. Gagnon, against gays are correct, then slavery, polygamy, the murder of women and children and all kinds of horrors lauded in the Old Testament are likewise perfectly fine. Is CNN indirectly endorsing these views as well? Bible inerrancy is an all or nothing proposition.
1 comment:
Hi there Michael. Before I comment, I'd like to make something crystal clear at the onset. I am a Christian (ex-fundamentalist under reconstruction) who does not hold to strict innerancy when it comes to the Bible BUT I do think that God wants us to think for ourselves and to weigh each situation on it's merits and within the context of the time (with regard to ancient events) and in respect of what is known to us in the present.
For example if you'd have asked me what I thought about homosexuals before the spirit of Jesus Christ began to influence me, I'd say that it did not bother me what other people did as long as they did not hurt others.
Even after a homosexual lured me into his apartment, made me drunk and when I'd passed out had sex with me; I did not think such a thing was anything more than just the sort of stuff that was happening to me as part of my life. Lessons about people, if you will.
After I received the spirit of Jesus Christ I discovered that many of the passions that had driven my life were being vetoed by the spirit of love. It's hard to explain this, but it's not like I have a verse in the Bible that says 'don't do that' and so I run around trying to obey it. It's more like there is a weighing down on the scale against me doing things that are against that spirit of love.
This includes not judging others for their choices in life.
I've certainly read a few heavy handed teachers who slam down on homosexuality like it was the evil to end all evils. I'd ask them a simple question? What is sin? Most Christians cannot give you a straight up answer on this. Why? Well, it's not an easy one to answer, as it means one has to go to a far deeper idea than any action (whether it's killing someone, hating someone, or violating someone against their will) You might not know this, but an honest study of the Bible has led me to conclude much of this, plus thinking really hard.
To me sin, is the part of us that says 'I do what I want when I want and no-one is going to tell me what I should do, not even God!' 'I am my own boss and I will do as I please' It's that part, which very often runs directly against the basic idea of what love is. Love is beautifully described in the New Testament. ( 1 Corinthians 13 ) Love is not selfish .... I think that sin at it's root is basic selfishness and the person that lives out of that will miss out on the sort of happiness and meaningfulness that is there for each of us.
Basically, when one lives out of that root, then one is able to live without the need to take issue with minor issues. I could go on, but I think you can probably do the rest from there. Peace.
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