Thursday, May 31, 2012

the model that doesn't exist

Two weeks ago, North Carolina voters put the kibosh on any possibility of legalized same-sex marriage in their state.  Not surprising.  It's North Carolina.  Then the next day was when President Obama expressed support for the legalization of same-sex marriage, and the conservative preachers, notably in North Carolina, sprung into action condemning him.

I was reading about one preacher of a mostly black Pentecostal church in that state who vilified the President for going against "the biblical model of marriage."

And I've been thinking ever since I read that what a stupid comment it is.  There is no biblical model of marriage.  Sure, you can find verses in the Bible when taken out of context can say anything you want them to say, maybe even some "one man/one woman" stuff.  I could easily cobble together some verses to make it look like the Bible advocates polygamy.  Or what about the example of the two stars of the New Testament -- Jesus and the Apostle Paul?  Neither one married; in fact, Paul at times was anti-marriage.  So should we take that to mean that the Bible is anti-marriage?

The trick is to find a congregation that is willing to be easily manipulated.

Sometimes I think I should have been an objective Biblical scholar, but I bet it doesn't pay very well.  People don't want objectivity and they don't want to hear about context.  They want emotion, and in certain churches hate seems to be the emotion that best fills the offering plates.

(Sorry for that little rant).

3 comments:

ruthie said...

surprised you didn't mention the 3 year old singing the homo song. WTF is the world coming to that we teach our children to judge and hate before some kids can even say those words.

Howard said...

i dont know about the 3 year old

ruthie said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A347_LC7_w

"Ain’t no homo gonna make it to heaven" he sings in front of his church