quote:
Originally posted by Matter-eater Man:
I would ask how your interpeting the Bible. By what it says in a literal way or a historical critical way. Looking at the Bible with it's historical context you get vastly different reading than a literal reading. Again I recomend "What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality" It looks at the actual Hebrew passages & takes into account the historical times & what is actually being said.
Read my quotations of the Bible, beginning with the first post on page 4.
There is clearly no misinterpretation: that within the context of the Bible, homosexuality is a defining characteristic of a society so jaded that it is abandoned to self-destruction, shortly followed by destruction by God, IS UNMISTAKEABLE.
There is no "interpretation", that is literally what it says.
Again see GENESIS chapter 18 and 19, and ROMANS chapter 1.
(How many times have I said this? 12 times? 20 times? )

The message is clear and indisputable, you just choose for your own reasons not to accept a point that has been clearly made, that this is unmistakeably what the Bible says.
And to allow this false "Bible accepts the gay lifestyle" notion to slip by and be accepted as truth has a corrupting influence on society, and CHRISTIANITY ITSELF.

Attempting to change the subject and bring in divorce just muddies the issue. The issue we are discussing here is homosexuality.
It's like if a guy is arrested for murder, and you say, Well we don't enforce sodomy laws in our state, therefore we shouldn't punish murderers either.
Divorce is something I'm not wild about (being the child of a divorced family, I have some considerable experience on how hard that is on a family). But the fact that divorce exists doesn't absolve homosexuality. Divorce is another manifestation of our instant-gratification popular culture, that encourages adulterousness and breeds a lack of commitment, that needs to be addressed. But one does not rationalize the other, the existence of divorce does not make homosexuality acceptable. They are two separate issues to be addressed and resolved.

(There are situations where one can divorce legally, according to Jesus:
1) If your spouse has committed adultery, you are justified to divorce them. That is, again, an example of the sanctity of marriage, and violation of it by one partner frees the other to seek a faithful spouse. Although one can elect to reconcile, and try to save the marriage despite their partner's unfaithfulness.

and
2) Divorce is permissible if someone married as a non-Christian, and then divorced. At that point, they are free to find a Christian spouse. 1 CORINTHIANS 7: VERSES 15-16, among others. )

The slavery issue (which as I recall T-Dave and one other here raised) is a false issue. It was not something widely accepted by Christians. There is a verse in previous times used by some to falsely justifying slavery, that a vast percentage of Christians, --even in slavery times-- condemned as a non-Christian misinterpretation.
Abolitionist John Brown, among others, was a Christian who gave his life in a rather violent effort to abolish slavery, in 1859. He truly despised the notion of slavery, and made it a holy mission to abolish it. As did others.

The verse is in Genesis chapter 9 is the one I've heard used to rationalize slavery. Specifically Genesis 9:verses 26-27. It is clearly a curse on Ham for mistreatment of Noah, and does not condemn any race or people to slavery, but specifically Noah's son Ham (and Ham's son Canaan and his descendents, for the corrupt pattern they would follow as well.)
When the Jews left Egypt around 1400 B.C., they settled in the land of Canaan, remade the land and culture into Israel.

Anyone who doesn't have a Bible, here is an NIV you can access online to read any of these sections directly (as I linked with other verses earlier):

http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=NIV&passage=all