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Originally posted by chavos
1. Question in the form "Why do Christians do X?" are generally invalid. There is no monolith of "Christians" who do all the same things.
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Most mainstream Christian denomiations have not rejected the Old Testament from my understanding.
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2. The Old Testement is not a monolith of belief either. This is a collection of scriptures, many different authors and editors. Simple proof texting, eg: "Leviticus says that gays are bad" is a reckless use of such a text. There are many GBLT Christians who still find significant meaning in both testaments.
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Right.
Levitictus 20:13:
If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death.
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You level the arguement that it's "picking and choosing." Okay. That's what the church fathers did to come up with the list of book that would make it anyhow. They listened to what they felt God was saying, and choose what books represented their faith. I respect their choices. I do not consider myself absolutely bound by them. I too, must "Listen to what the Spirit is saying" (Revelations 2:11)
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You don't interpret the Bible literaly then, which makes debate difficult. No debate can occur if you view the Bible from the subjective point of view. I should have clarified that earlier.
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3. Moses, etc... I suggest Bill Moyer's "Genesis" as reading on the very human portrait of God in the Pentatuch. Having spent a fair amount of time learning the NT, over the last year, i've taken time to attend Jewish Torah study, and to learn more about this...and i've found it fascinating. As i was hinting earlier, the inclusion of a very human portrait of God, the realities of violence, and all the other things that get mentioned in the list are all part of the tapestry of the search for meaning. Yeah, it's challenging. Yes, it is a conflict for the believer to sort out. Yes, it looks messy and inoperable to the outsider. But the complexity allows the mind and soul to really get to work on trying to understand the mystery...in ways that a straight forward text could never inspire.
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Subjective interpretation of the Bible. We can't debate over that heheh :P