I’ll admit, church wasn’t that awful. The sermon was decent and the people were very nice.
I went with my boyfriend and his family. My boyfriend is an atheist, but has to go because of an arrangement with his parents, and being the wonderful girlfriend that I am (not tooting my own horn or anything…) I offered to go with him.
It was a little awkward at first. We arrived late in the middle of the church singing a song and sat towards the front. The church was smaller than I thought it would be. Well, the attendance of the church was smaller than I thought it would be. There was about 50 people there, and I was expecting double that.
Through the sermon, I really tried to pay attention. I got about half way through the sermon when my Bible started distracting me. Sounds funny, huh?
I have a ‘teen bible’ which means that it has all of this extra stuff inside of it to help guide teens. Really though it’s just something to busy yourself while the pastor finishes his sermon. I was browsing through one of the letters sent in to the bible company and it asked something about AIDs being a punishment to homosexuals for immoral behavior. (cringe.)
Having never read the part of the Bible where it actually says that homosexuality is wrong, I traveled over to Leviticus to read it for myself.
I was unimpressed. It just said “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.”
Okay…cool…but why is it detestable? There’s no reasoning behind it, because it isn’t detestable. It’s just something that was found icky and gross back then like in Leviticus 18:19- “Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.”
Can someone please tell me why not to have sex on a woman’s period besides the fact that the man might find it gross? I can’t think of any.
Another kicker was Leviticus 18:23 “Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.”
If a man has sex with an animal, he is defiling himself. If a woman does it, she’s a pervert. Great. Nice sexism, Bible.
I’m not necessarily hating on the Bible or anything, just the fact that it is EXTREMELY sexist and just a wee bit outdated. Maybe we the people should modernize it and THEN apply it to our life now, instead of using rules for their lives back then. Doesn’t that make sense to everyone?
Also, I’m definitely going to hell. Deuteronomy 22:11-”A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.”
I wore a men’s shirt to church today that I got for free at the Salvation Army because it had a coffee stain on it. Hooray for looking cute and being thrifty! Boo going to hell for wearing a man’s shirt!
I recently had a discussion with Austin about this that actually ended up nowhere. But since then I’ve bought a book called 77 FAQs About God and the Bible, and there is a specific chapter about this (the chapter is called Are All The Old Testament Laws Binding On Us Today?). The chapter pretty much said what i was trying (keyword there) to say, but actually makes the point. Something you have to understand is the relationship between the coming of Jesus and the old covenant (old Israelite laws). Galatians 3:19-25 basically says this: the (old) law was given as a tool for the Israelites as something to guide their behaviors and ways of life. The law was designed only to last until Jesus came, though, and BECAME the new law. Jesus says in Mat. 5:17 “I did not come to abolish the writings of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, i came to accomplish their purpose.” Before Christ, the way into heaven was through the old law, which came as a natural by-product of having a relationship with God. AFTER Jesus, going to heaven is through his Son. Therefore, the old laws do not necessarily apply to us. People say that the bible has contradictions because of that. For example, the Israelites could not eat unclean animals. But 1st century Christians did eat pork and such. Why? Because in Acts 11, God revealed to Peter that he had made all animals clean. Whether an animal was clean or not played a key part in the role of animal sacrifice by the Israelites. Before Christ, the Jews had to sacrifice animals as atonement for their sins, but when Christ came, he became the ultimate sacrifice. That’s why Christian’s do not sacrifice animals, and why they can eat unclean animals.
When read out of context, there are many things that seem to contradict in the bible. Such as all those old laws you discussed. But in the New Testament, it is all spelled out why Jesus became the new law, and how things changed. It’s not random “pick and choose on your own” which laws are still used. Rather, you can read for yourself the difference between the old and new covenant in the New Testament. I apologize for the lengthy reply, but i couldn’t sum up something like this very quickly. I hope this helps you understand.