It never ceases to amaze me — Here we are in the year 2013, and conservative Christians are still using the Bible to condemn the lifestyle choices & spiritual beliefs of others who happen to behave differently & worship differently than they do. The harsh words of Leviticus 18:22 & Leviticus 20:13 are still being used by religious zealots to condemn homosexuals, bisexuals and all others of alternative sexuality to a discriminated life of inequality in the Here&Now, and to Hell in the hereafter.

And to this I say quite simply -– “Fair enough”. I know I cannot erase ignorance by raising my voice, and I know that I cannot quash hatred by voicing my disgust for it.

And yet, what I CAN do is calmly present the facts … and I’m not talking about the facts related to homosexuality itself (namely, that homosexuality is a genetic predisposition for the vast majority of those in the LGBT community – in essence, that “God made gays gay” … and that homosexuals can be just as devout in their worship of God as those who are “straight”).

I am talking about the facts related to the Bible itself.

So with this all in mind, please consider the following Truths – and please consider passing them on to anyone you know who is being condemned by a Christian, along with any Christian you know who is doing that condemning:

*TRUTH #01) Jesus’ Way trumps the Old Testament …

Christians seem all-too-easily to forget that Jesus Christ — their own Lord & Savior – made it very clear that his ministry was designed to transcend the out-dated, dysfunctional and far-too-condemnatory laws found in the Hebrew Bible (what many today call the “Old Testament”. Indeed, a closer look at the actions & sayings of Jesus found in the Gospels shows that he either radically expanded or flagrantly dismissed almost every one of the 613 Jewish laws found in the Old Testament!

It is true that Jesus is quoted as saying “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18), and yet what most Christians do not realize is that the Greek word translated as “fulfill” [Gk #4137 “pleroo”] is more appropriately translated as “to complete”, “to hone” or “to perfect” or “to actualize” [NOT merely “to follow” or “to obey”]. This translation harmonizes much more fluidly with the rest of Jesus’ actions & teachings in the Gospels, and it is a translation that harmonizes much more fluidly with the word “accomplished” used in verse 18 [Gk #1096 “ginomai” – to come fully into being, to become fully manifest]. Rather than being a call to blindly accept the words of the Old Testament, this verse is actually an announcement that the Old Testament laws were NOT meant to be merely known or obeyed any longer, but rather that their underlying intent was to be fully enlivened. And how did Jesus tell us to do this fulfilling? Why, by showing us “The Way” – by showing us that we are show everyone unconditional Love & humble respect. And this teaching had absolutely no exceptions – it included tax collectors, Romans, Pharisees, prostitutes, lepers, the poor and – even though he never mentioned them once in the entire Bible – homosexuals.

The book of Hebrews (purportedly written by Paul but almost certainly written by another author some time after Paul’s death) makes this even clearer when it states the following:

“And they shall not teach one another or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. In speaking of ‘a new covenant’, he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old must soon disappear.” (Hebrews 8:11-13)

Even Paul himself – in his more lucid moments of reflection – noted that Christians are no longer bound by the law, but rather are only ruled by the Grace-full Way that Jesus lived & taught (see Galatians 3:23-25, Romans 6:14 & Romans 7:4 for starters).

Of course, if Christians are no longer bound by these Old Testament laws, they can no longer use those same laws to condemn the behaviors of others. To do so is to be flagrantly hypocritical – a “sinful” character trait that Jesus loathed above all others (see Matthew 6, Matthew 7:1-5, Matthew 15:7-9, Matthew 23, Mark 7, Mark 12:38-40, Luke 6:46, Luke 12:2, Luke 16:15, John 8:4-9 & John 15:2 for starters).

In essence, then, it is not only common decency that demands that we respect those in the LGBT community — the Bible itself tells us to do so; the Bible itself tells all Christians that they are to gently disregard all Old Testament teachings that contradict Jesus’ greater Way of Love!

TRUTH #02) Championing one Old Testament verse requires championing them all …

Basically, if a Christian is going to use the six verses in the Bible that appear to condemn homosexuality (four of which are in the Old Testament – the other two being uttered by that delightful yet often deluded madman, Paul), then he or she is also going to have to stand by the other 31,167 verses in the Bible as well – among them the following:

*Leviticus 25:44-46 clearly supports slavery, including capturing citizens of neighboring nations and forcing them into one’s service. This means that American Christians can go into Canada or Mexico and bring back as many fresh slaves as their trucks & vans will carry. Of course, this also means that Canadian & Mexican Christians can do the same to Americans … hmmmmm … By the way, if any of you do end up obtaining a few slaves in this manner, and if you happen to get upset at them and beat them severely as a result, Exodus 21:21 notes that you won’t be punished at all — as long as the slaves recover “after a day or two” … (Now that’s a relief — NOT!)

*1 Corinthians 14:34-35 makes no bones about it – women are to be silent in church and submit to their husbands’ authority everywhere else. This law is understandable in context – written at a time when women were not allowed to educate themselves and were considered the material property of their fathers or husbands (see Exodus 21:7, where a man’s daughters may be sold into slavery). And yet, at least in relation to the many thousands of truly brilliant women I have been blessed to know personally over the last four+ decades, I’m not sure this passage translates well into our more enlightened society …

*Exodus 35:2 states quite directly that anyone working on the Sabbath (that’s Saturday in the Old Testament, by the way) shall be put to death – a sizeable conundrum for a sizeable portion of the modern-day Christian community.

*Leviticus 11:10 denounces the eating of any shellfish as an “abomination” – a law the shellfish themselves certainly find pleasing, yet one that is probably troublesome for many Christians; especially those living in Maine & Florida.

*Deuteronomy 14:3 states most plainly that we “shall not eat any abominable thing”, including rabbits and pigs. Interestingly, this verse uses the same Hebrew word used to describe homosexuality as an “abomination” in Leviticus 18:22 … This means, since both miscues involve “abominations” and since homosexuals are to be put to death (Leviticus 20:13), conservative Christians should certainly think twice before eating any more bacon.

*Most intriguingly, Ezekiel 16:49-50 has God seemingly calling the citizens of Sodom “abominations” (again, the same word used to denounce homosexuality in Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13) not only because they engaged in wanton lustful acts (heterosexual as well as homosexual), but also because they lived lives of “careless ease” and “did not help the poor and needy” … a call for every Christian to look sternly in the mirror before casting an accusing glance at anyone else.

*Leviticus 24:14 describes where Moses decrees that a blaspheming man be stoned to death for using the Lord’s name in vain. Is this really just or loving? And where do we draw the line at what is blasphemy and what isn’t? And who gets to decide who has crossed that line and will therefore be publicly executed? … Jesus Christ! (oops)

*Deuteronomy 23:18, when read in its proper historical context, makes it a sin to have sex out of wedlock.

*Exodus 21:17 makes it clear that anyone cursing their mother or their father shall be put to death.

*Leviticus 19:18 demands that we neither bear grudges nor take revenge on our enemies, though Exodus 21:32-25 makes it equally clear that “if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise”.

*Leviticus 19:19 demands that all farmers leave the corners of their fields ever-unreaped for use by the poor, Deuteronomy 15:7 demands that we give to every poor man what he needs, and Deuteronomy 10:19 demands that we care for and be kind to all strangers.

Of course, these are but a handful of the hundreds of similar examples resting within the Bible’s texts (I still haven’t mentioned the acceptance of polygamy or the denouncement of tattoos), and yet the point has hopefully become one most clear: amongst all the world’s current Christians, who is now left to cast the first stone?

Yes, it is true that Paul does blast “sinners” regularly in the New Testament, in two places also referencing homosexuals (see 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 & Romans 1:26-27 … noting that 1 Timothy 1:9-10 was not written by Paul). And yet, even bipolar Paul later recognized that his own bigotries were both incorrect & unfounded (see Romans 13:8-10 & Colossians 3:11-13).

And much more importantly for Christians, of course, it was Jesus himself who definitively encouraged ALL OF US – Christians as well as Jews, liberals as well as conservatives; atheists as well as evangelicals – to humble ourselves in the presence of ALL our brothers & sisters; to remember that we are ALL members of one human Family – and to act accordingly …

And he made no exceptions to this decree. We are to act this way and extend this Love to others regardless of race, regardless of gender, regardless of religious belief, regardless of political proclivity … an regardless of sexual orientation.

In essence, it’s high time we set our primitive bigotries & fearful judgments aside and got back to being Kind to one another …

To summarize: other people are different, people … Get over it.

Amen.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged yourself, and with the same measure you use, it will be measured upon you.” ~ Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:1-2)

“Why do you look at the speck of dust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the beam in your own? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your eye, and then you might see clearly to remove the splinter from the eye of your brother.” ~ Jesus Christ (Luke 6:41-43)

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.” ~ Jesus Christ (John 8:7)