Monday Morning Insights

Photo of Todd
    .

    New Gay and Lesbian Bible Combats Judgmental Christians and Mistranslation

    Bookmark and Share

    This is a quote from the website of the Gay and Lesbian Bible.  Here’s some more:

    Generally speaking, many Christians are a judgmental lot and do not approve of women as Church leaders, divorced people, or homosexuals. However, these biases are not supported by the Bible itself. Some may appear to be, due to mistranslation, others are not supported even by that. Many Christians, when shown that a word they thought meant one thing in fact means something entirely different, simply do not wish to know. They prefer to disregard the evidence in order to adhere to their own closely held traditions.

    In the New Testament, Jesus railed against legalistic religious leaders, and told us to beware of them. He at no point told us to beware of women as Church leaders, of divorced people, or of homosexuals. And of course he would not, as the New Testament in the original Greek does not speak against these three groups in any way whatsoever.

    So far, the US Distributor for this Australian publication has banned the distribution in the US because of it ‘promoting a lifestyle contrary to scriptures’.  More here.

    There are a couple of other books on the market that are pro-gay, just not in bible format:
    Openly Gay, Openly Christian:  How the Bible Really is Gay Friendly

    and

    The Word is Out:  Daily Reflections on the Bible for Lesbians and Gay Men

    ... but interestingly enough, these books are nearly ten years old.

    Sample book of Jude from the Gay and Lesbian Bible

    What are your thoughts?

    "Deep in the shuddering guts of that religion known as Christianity is a rich and troubling history of persecution. Bullying. The singling-out those the Church professes to be Anti-God, such as Gay, Lesbian, Bi- sexual and Transgendered people. All built up from the foundation that is God's word, the Bible. Only it isn’t. There is no Scriptural foundation for this persecution, no anti-gay passages in the Bible that the Church professes there are. There have been mistranslations. Check. Persecutions. Check. Bullying on the largest scale. Check. But none of this is set down in the Bible as God's way. Hence Smith and Stirling Publishing announces the release of a new and only LGBT Study Bible, "Study New Testament for Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transgender: With Extensive Notes on Greek Word Meaning and Context." The translator is Dr A. Nyland, an ancient Greek language scholar and lexicographer..."

    Comments

    if you want a Globally Recognized Avatar (the images next to your profile) get them here. Once you sign up, they will displayed on any website that supports them.

    1. Pastor Dan on Wed, November 28, 2007

      It’s sad…  The Bible is clear that all sex outside of marriage between a man and woman is sin.  That said we to share the message of God’s love and grace and keep the real issue in mind… every human being is a sinner in need of God’s grace whether gay or straight…

    2. Brian on Wed, November 28, 2007

      “He at no point told us to beware of women as Church leaders, of divorced people, or of homosexuals.”


      He also, at no point told us to beware of rapists, child molestors, and genocidal maniacs.  Should we then say that these are okay?


      Brian L.

    3. Daniel on Wed, November 28, 2007

      A sad conflation of act and essence. No one is what they do. Traditional views of sexuality are by and large grounded in the Creation narratives (as they should be). Until there’s a persuasive argument from the pro-GLBT camp that homosexual sex is essential to being gay, they won’t have ‘proved’ that God is ‘against’ gays.


      Creation is broken. Homosexuality is a form of brokenness. God’s solution? New Creation!

    4. Concerned on Wed, November 28, 2007

      Right on, Brian.  Let’s call it the way it is,  homosexuals, child molesters, women as church leaders, rapists, divorced people, genocidal manics, all the same, right?

    5. Brian L on Wed, November 28, 2007

      Concerned,


      That’s not my point at all.  My point is that an argument from silence is a false argument.  I can justify all sorts of things by the silence of Jesus: drug use, incest, mutilating dogs, abortion, just to name a few.


      Does that make any of them right?  Absolutely not.  Scripture doesn’t address any of these specifically.  Yet Scripture does address homosexual behavior.


      Brian

    6. deaubry on Wed, November 28, 2007

      in the last days god said people will call good evil and evil good, this is a good example, i have never heard such garbage in my life time, if these people want to believe a lie and be damed, what can you do, but when a preacher of the gospel tell these people that it is alright, should be run out of the pulpit with a buggy whip. the preacher is worse than they are , when the light that is in you is darkness how great is that darkness, god said not to judge them that is without, but you can judge them that SUPPOSE to be in, god said not to even eat with a person that calls their self a christian and do these evil things, put them out of the church , but if they repent then take them back in, homosexually is certainly a SIN,

    7. Shane Vander Hart on Wed, November 28, 2007

      It is amazing how poor hermenutics can lead to “new” discoveries in Scripture to justify whatever behavior we want to participate in.


      How sad.  I guess theologians and Bible scholars for hundreds of years were “wrong” on this issue.

    8. Daniel on Thu, November 29, 2007

      Okay now, let’s not whip ourselves into a frenzy. There are in fact complex issues surrounding the translation of some key Greek terms (e.g. Paul’s malakoi and arsenokoitai). Further, given that the early Church cultural context is not our own, there are some valid issues to be raised.


      Personally, I think a theology which emphasizes the Creation-New Creation trajectory of Scripture poses problems for the GLBT-affirming hermeneutic. But let’s not pretend like these brothers and sisters are a bunch of degenerates!!! Some of them might be, like some of us certainly are, but there is such a thing as honest disagreement folks.


      Peace.

    9. deaubry on Thu, November 29, 2007

      daniel there is no honest disagreement, being a christian has nothing to do with culturl difference, are a play in words, call a spade a spade, if you do not define sin then we could say every one is alright, just live like you want to and be accepted as a christian just because a person said they are a christian, JESUS said , just because a person says lord lord , does not make them saved, BUT THE ONES THAT DOES HIS WILL, but my point is you do not tell a homosexual that is still being a homosexual that it is alright to be one, yes god loves them, but we should love them enough to tell them the truth.

    10. Daniel on Thu, November 29, 2007

      Deaubry, I appreciate your zeal, but I’m not the one who gets to define sin. Sin is sin, and we do our best to detect it and root it out. I think participating in war is sin, based on my reading of Jesus’ teachings. A number of Christians disagree. I strongly disagree with them, and I may choose not to associate with some of them, but I cannot allow myself to think of them as any more ‘reprobate’ than me.


      I think they’re wrong, but I don’t think they’re being intellectually dishonest.


      In the same way, I submit that we can vehemently disagree with the GLBT-affirming sexual ethic, while simultaneously affirming their intellectual integrity. Sometimes honest people just disagree. It doesn’t mean everybody’s right. Of course not. But it doesn’t mean that one person’s right and the other person is lying to themselves, or is being devious or deceitful in some way.


      Am I making sense?


      Let’s have our opinions without psychologizing the opposition.


      Peace.


      -Daniel-

    11. Jan on Thu, November 29, 2007

      Living in Mormon country, my first thought was how the LDS defense is “the translation is wrong”.


      I know several homosexual men and women who have grown up in the evangelical church and walked away from God after falling into this lifestyle.


      They are walking wounded, and walking guilt.


      I think we has Christians need to love these people back into the fold and that is the only way we will reach them.


      I refuse to compromise my theology or scripture, but I am committed to that.


      One man is a major vocal coach (coaches Broadway stars).  My dd was taking a lesson from him, and she brought in a piece called “Found Redeemed”.


      He LOVED it.  One day she was singing it and he began to join her and he accidently twisted the words up.  Instead of “In Jesus I was found worthy.”  He sang, “In Jesus I was found guilty.”  He abruptly stopped, turned bright red, and then apologized for his mistake.  But not before my daughter saw him wipe a tear away.


      That picture says a lot.  I am determined to pray this man back into the kingdom.


      I guess I’m rambling here!  But as a person in the arts, I really have a heart for these sad people.  I wish they could see Christian love in action!

    12. deaubry on Thu, November 29, 2007

      i agree with you , we need christian love in action. i do not beleive that a person is born with this homosexual gene or what ever some people call it, i believe it is a evil spirit that influence or should i say lead them into this life style, god sure would not make them that way and then call it a sin. i also feel so sorry for them and its a heart felt sorrow, i just hate that satan is trying to take them down , and some preachers is in agreement with satan. that is what desturbes me about the whole thing.and if anyone tell them that being in that lifestyle is alright then they do not love them.

    13. Brian on Thu, November 29, 2007

      I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I want to mention that my father-in-law is gay.  I only bring this up to show that I’m not speaking as someone who just has theological opinions about something I’ve never had to actually deal with in the life of someone I love and care about.


      He gives us books that are meant to show that the lifestyle is acceptable (even blessed!) by God, and they all center on the “controversial” terms mentioned above.


      This isn’t something I just blast away on.  This subject is personal.  I’ve also lost 2 friends to AIDS acquired through homosexual behavior.

    14. deaubry on Fri, November 30, 2007

      brian of course you care about him and love him, but do you believe that this life style is acceptable and blessed, satan will use our love for people our emotions to get to us , he will try to get us to agree with the wrong/sin, he has tried this on me in my own family, of course you love your family, but you hate the sin, i do not get tied up in arguements with my family members, but i can not compromise and loose my own soul,

    15. Jenny on Mon, December 03, 2007

      Any bible thumper should be forced to watch this movie called Zeitgeist before doing anything else in there life, it is free to watch on the internet just Google the word.

    16. Page 1 of 2 pages  1 2 >

      Post a Comment

    17. (will not be published)

      Remember my personal information

      Notify me of follow-up comments?

    Sponsors