Thursday, July 14, 2005
Bible exemption required?
Do Christian leaders urgently need to speak to Paul Goggins and ask that the Bible be exempted from the Religious Hatred Bill?.
If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or your intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)
Suppose a man or woman among you, in one of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, has done evil in the sight of the LORD your God and has violated the covenant by serving other gods or by worshiping the sun, the moon, or any of the forces of heaven, which I have strictly forbidden. When you hear about it, investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is true that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, then that man or woman must be taken to the gates of the town and stoned to death. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5 NLT)
Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)
If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)
All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offence. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)
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1 comment:
Actually, technically, no.
The standard interpretation of New Testament scripture (throughout the Christian world) is that Jesus is the Word made flesh, and replaces all previous scripture. If there are any inconsistencies between the New Testament and the Old Testament, the New Testament takes precedence. (Thus the name "New Testament".)
It's a rather similar interpretive tradition to Islam's for giving precedence to the Medina writings in the Koran and Hadith over the Mecca ones if there are any inconsistencies.
Oh wait...The Medina writings clearly state that unbelievers need to be slain. Oh well...
As well, Judaism has a diverse 2500-year tradition of commentary and interpretation of the Torah (aka the Old Testament) which supersedes much of the literalness of interpretation of the early days and takes the edge off of the less savoury bits.
Islam had a similar tradition, up until about the last 150 years. Many adherents to these traditions, however, will be the first up against the wall when the Islamic revolution comes.
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