Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
You just got through accusing Fundamentalist of picking and choosing and then you recommend I pick and choose. Can you see the contradiction. Do you suppose that the first century Christians went about with this core message and yet got hunted down, attacked, and killed in the first centuries. Read Acts 7 and tell me what the first Christian martyr was killed for. Was he guilty of not choosing the right core beliefs?
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I'm not (or not intending to) accuse anyone of anything. Frankly, I don't know enough about Fundamentalist doctrine to do so. What I am suggesting is that the Bible is a big book, with a lot of stuff--and that in order to create a modern code of conduct, addressing issues that were unimaginable to the human beings who wrote this stuff down, and to the other human beings who translated it from one human language to another human language--to do that involves some picking and choosing. The most famous passage that condemns homosexuality is from Leviticus--but Leviticus contains all sorts of things that given our modern society are inapplicable.
What I'm suggesting is that we treat it like a parable--a mode of teaching that as you know Christ was very fond of--rather than treating it like a book of laws, which is (and don't take this the wrong way) the way the pharisees read scripture. Christ had a different take--he had core moral lessons that he wanted to teach about how people should treat one another. It sounds like part of the problem is that I want to treat it (the Bible, but the Gospel in particular) as a source of moral and ethical (i.e. personal) truth, as opposed to a set of practical principles and codes of conduct.
FYI--Al Gore is a born-again Christian. As you know, Jimmy Carter is a baptist, and widely considered a good one by those who don't think God loves economic conservatives more than liberals. I didn't say either was a fundamentalist--just that in my judgement, they're more sincere Christians than Bush, who strikes me as a hypocrite. I don't believe in Hell, as you might guess--but if there is a Hell, Bush will get his in the end, I guess.
Good discussion, btw! Although we disagree on most of this, and probably always will, I've learned a little about your position from reading your posts, which is a valuable thing.
