Debating the Flat Earth Society....

I stole this title from Bishop Shelby Spong taken from the text of an essay annie posted on EU about his views on homosexuality and Bible inerrancy. In it he said the following

The Bible was written between the years 1000 B.C.E. and 135 C.E. Our knowledge of almost everything has increased exponentially since that time. It is the height of ignorance to continue using the Bible as an encyclopedia of knowledge to keep dying prejudices intact.

There is also a widely accepted mentality that if the Bible is opposed, the idea must be wrong. That is little more than nonsensical fundamentalism. The rise of democracy was contrary to the "clear teaching of the Bible," as the debate over the forced signing of the Magna Carta by King John of England in 1215 revealed. The Bible was quoted to prove that Galileo was wrong; that Darwin was wrong; that Freud was wrong; that allowing women to be educated, to vote, to enter the professions and to be ordained was wrong. So the fact that the Bible is quoted to prove that homosexuality is evil and to be condemned is hardly a strong argument, given the history of how many times the Bible has been wrong. I believe that most bishops know this but the Episcopal Church has some fundamentalist bishops and a few who are "fellow travelers" with fundamentalists.

It could also be argued that the Bible has been used to support slavery, segregation, child abuse, wife abuse, jihad, capital punishment, it has endorsed (or not spoken out against) rape, forced marriage, polygamy, concubines, castration, lying, murder, bigotry, torture.

No Christian today endorses slavery…yet the Bible seems to take a so what, who cares, be the best slave you can be attitude. Huh? And polygamy and having a whole slew of concubines was commonplace…yet today would that fly? How about the plucking out of eyes….and a dozen heads in a basket….the spoils go to the victor stories in the OT? Would that fly today? Can you say “war crimes.” How about Elijah killing off the priests of Baal by his own hand? Can you say “religious persecution.”

So many things in the OT we condemn today…and have actually, in part, gone to war over. (Sadam and sons….tortured their own people….instituted genocide against the Kurds) Although oil and other issues played a big part in the gulf wars…that was at least a part of it.

And what about the infamous texts everyone quotes about eating seafood, wearing mixed garments, planting a garden with mixed crops etc. etc. etc. These texts are used as an example that the OT rules and regulations are not for us today.

With a bit of study, most of the OT traditions are not a cut and dry case. Like hell, the condemnation of homosexuals is a tradition etched into the very fibers of Christianity….and is (in my opinion) just another exclusion by the Christian elite, the favored, chosen ones of God.