Christians tend to cite Bible out of context
October 3, 2011
I have a confession: I haven’t been to church in years. Growing up Catholic formed a huge part of my identity, and I used to love going to church and listening to stories from the Bible.
There are just a few problems.
I support same-sex marriage. Intelligent design has no place in a science department. Evolution can be observed in living animals and the fossil record. The Earth was created by dust and gravity.
The only Christian thing I still do is read the Bible.
But whenever you disagree with something, the trend now is to quote the Book of Leviticus calling it an abomination. Leviticus 19:28 does not fail me: “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves.”
Leviticus 18:22 gave us Christianity’s answer to same-sex marriage, but a quick survey of Leviticus might turn the most church-worthy cardigans into abominations.
Lev 19:19 tells us not to mix fabrics, so say goodbye to your favorite 50 percent cotton, 50 percent polyester blouse. You can’t cut your hair, shave your beards or check your horoscope. And you most definitely cannot eat bacon.
There is historical precedent for picking Bible verses to support Christian values while ignoring the rest. But today more non-Christians than ever are familiar with the Bible, and are willing to call Christian communities on their hypocrisy.
Atheists can find the time to read, so why can’t the people who consider it essential to their faith?
Our culture is obsessed with romantic love to the point that other kinds of love are often pushed to the wayside.
My favorite translation of the famous Corinthians I, chapter 13 — the love is patient, love is kind chapter — replaced the word ‘love’ with ‘charity.’ In the English language, love implies a bidirectional attachment between two entities.
But unconditional love for humanity as a whole, charity, I always understood that to be one of the main tenets of Christianity.
Do you think it can be met with people using the “Good Book” to perpetuate inequality?