arach writes:
. "wait, in the bible jesus said this... why are we doing the opposite?"
For years, I tried to point out the "living words" as a way to get the christians to stop hating. The problem with this approach is Jesus never actually directly said anything about certain issues, like segregation, sexism, and gay marriage. To actually see anything in the bible, both NT and OT, we have to look to Letter to the Romans or Leviticus, which of course support a variety of bigotry and sexist attitudes. During times of slavery, christians used the bible as a mean to justify slavery. Then of course, during the segregation period the christians used the bible to justify the blatant racism that was going on. During women's rights movement, the christians was able to dig up stuff in the bible to oppose women's rights to vote and stuff. Nowadays, they are using the bible to oppose gay rights.
Sure, if we analyze the bible deep enough, we can interpret it to support the basic human rights that we are fighting for and have been fighting for for decades. Purpledawn and jar have certainly been able to do this. But let's be honest. Do we honestly expect the average christian joe to think this deeply about theology? Remember that people's natural reaction to those who are different than them is hate. High school kids, myself included, stigmatized and even beat up gay kids in school. We then attended sunday sermons and our hate was reinforced by people like riverrat, buzsaw, and NJ. Do you honestly think that using Purpledawn's or jar's approach will change any of that?
The simple truth is most children have underdeveloped conscience. Some grow out of it and some remain unempathetic to other people's sufferings. Regardless of what the bible says, whether it supports or denounces hate, one can certainly use it to support just about anything. And therein lies the danger. I would put my money on a good atheist's moral conscience over any christian's anyday. At least the atheist is doing right because he knows it's the right thing to do rather than hope of heavenly bliss or fear of eternal damnation.
Disclaimer:
Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.
He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!