Dear Editor:
I’m amazed at how simple it seems to be for people to quote the
Bible as their authority on the law. For Patricia Behrens (3/17)
and John Murphy (3/17) and others to so blithely assume the Bible
condemns homosexuality is nothing more than illogical subjective
validation
– paying attention only to that evidence that supports their
point of view and ignoring all the rest.
Dear Editor:
I’m amazed at how simple it seems to be for people to quote the Bible as their authority on the law. For Patricia Behrens (3/17) and John Murphy (3/17) and others to so blithely assume the Bible condemns homosexuality is nothing more than illogical subjective validation – paying attention only to that evidence that supports their point of view and ignoring all the rest.
In science, logic, reasoning, and any search for truth and exploration of reality, to be guilty of confirmation bias (ignoring evidence that does not support our hypothesis) will keep us forever in the dark. Nobody has the right to suggest that their Bible or religion is any law for anybody else, especially in a country that values separation of church and state. However, in order to play the same game, let me suggest some other biblical laws and allow me to question how to adhere to them.
Leviticus 18:22 states, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.” What exactly is an abomination and to what degree is something to be abominated? Consider, Exodus 35:2: “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabboth of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.” Now, there’s an abomination, I’d say. How should we enforce this Law of God? Who gets to put those members of our community to death who work on Sunday?
In these tough economic times, I might be able to make some money selling my daughter into slavery. After all, according to Exodus 21:7, God’s law in the Bible, apparently I can sell my daughter to be a “maidservant.” I am confused; the Bible gives no advice on how much I can charge for her.
I have a rather healthy appetite for seafood, and I particularly enjoy shellfish. Having lived in New England, I have often enjoyed lobster, clams, and oysters. I love the squid here in California. However, according to Leviticus 11:10, “And all that have not fins and scales in the seas … which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you … ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcasses in abomination.” There’s that word again – “abomination” – is eating shellfish equal in abomination to homosexuality? This raises interesting questions. How am I to be punished under God’s law? Are there degrees of abomination?
Leviticus 21:5 states a law of God with profound implications for all of us: “They shall not make any baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave all the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.” I can only interpret this as saying no people can shave their faces or cut their hair, and if I read the cuttings in their flesh correctly, nobody can have surgery. Chapter 21 of Leviticus goes on to say that man must only marry a virgin, and a blind man and lame man may not approach the altar of God and further abominations are suggested in Leviticus 21:20 such as one that truly removes constitutional rights: dwarfs may not worship God, nor can people with broken limbs.
Now truly, we have strayed far from the law of God. If in our agricultural pursuits we plant two different crops in the same field, we are in violation of God’s law (Leviticus 19:19. Now truly, if we wear clothes made of different materials (say a cotton/polyester blend) we are in violation of God’s law (Leviticus 24:10). Now truly, the Bible says such blasphemers must be stoned to death. Who’s ready to cast those first stones?
Leviticus 11:8 says, in speaking of swine, “Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.” I guess that does it for football and touching the pigskin. I don’t know about pork rinds.
Those of you so quick to quote the Bible as law, as God’s law, and thus foist your own values and prejudices on others, can’t have it only your way. Terrorists are blowing up hotels in Baghdad. They are planting bombs in subways in Spain. They are driving planes into buildings. People, we have more to worry about than homosexual marriages.
No religious work must ever become that which dictates morality and ethics and behavior to others. Such subjective validation violates every practice of reasoning and critical thinking. Such narrow-minded selfishness is itself an abomination.
Ted Brett, Gilroy
Submitted Thursday, March 18 to ed****@****ic.com
