Extreme Itinerance

Now I'm jumping in so swiftly, I don't have a title. This is going to be extremely itinerant -- bam! Title. But this is going to be some very itinerant musings about the Bible and Christianity. Because I work with people who don't believe in it, and I watch TV shows containing characters who don't believe in it. So these are a number of observations that have been collecting in my mind, but lack the germination to become full-fledged posts. Here we go.

Perhaps one of the bigger mistakes has been dividing the Bible into Old and New Testament. I thought about this after an exchange by two characters on a popular TV drama wherein one character expressed his preference for the New Testament. So, here's the point: they're both about the same God.
You should not and cannot take them separately.

Second point, related strongly to the first: in the main, the Bible is not an instruction book. A large portion of the New Testament contains verses that sound much like instructions; but even then, most often, they need to be applied to today. Not the cultural values of today, I'm not advocating adapting the Bible to what's comfortable, though I'm sure many will read it that way. But as has been pointed out previously by other scholars, Jesus' command to go and do like the Good Samaritan does not mean we must all travel to the road to Jericho and be on the look-out for Jews who have been mugged. We adapt that verse without thinking: why not others? As for the Old Testament, it is in large part a narrative, a history of a nation of peoples. The specific Levitical laws were for the Israelites upon entering the Promised Land. The basis for those laws -- God and His nature -- remains the same: the manifestations of that basis will change.

Here's a big one: Jesus spoke against homosexuality. As did Paul. Stop thinking it was just one of those Old Testament things, like wearing a tunic of mixed cloth. When did Jesus say anything? He couched it in his statement about divorce: “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? (Matthew 19:4-5). Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 6. Interestingly, to me at least, Paul uses an active verb: "Men who have sex with men" (NIV). We all struggle with sin, don't we? Sinful thoughts? And we must all ask forgiveness for them. Is it so hard to believe that in a fallen and broken world, where every other thought bends away from the creational intent of God, our sexual tendencies should invariably remain true? I read an article recently about people struggling with "hate the sin, love the sinner" when it was someone close to them -- a relative or very close friend. Is it possible this is so difficult because we're mis-labeling where the sin falls? Is the sin in the tendency, or in the action? If the serial killer submits himself to a psychiatrist before killing anyone, do we loathe him the same way we loathe the one who kills twenty people? So why do we so ravenously turn against the man who struggles to keep his mind off other men, or women off women, the same as if they had done the act? I think it's because we're bigoted, and ignorant.

I probably had other points to make, but that kind of went long. I'll see you Wednesday.