Questions for Christians
Lifted from DailyKos:
Seems homophobic christianists favorite passage of the Bible is Leviticus 18:22 - but I think we’d be interested in their responses to other passages they always choose to ignore:
1. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should this be a neighborhood activity?
2. Leviticus 25:44-46 clearly states that we may indeed possess slaves, both males and females - and we can even leave them to the kids in our Wills. However, it also states they have to be purchased from neighboring nations - or be immigrants. A good Christian friend of mine claims that this applies only to Mexicans, but not Canadians. I personally would prefer owning a Canuck. Is it true I can't own a Canuck?
MORE....
3. Turns out that God not only lets us own slaves, but we can sell our kids as slaves also. Well, one of my friends would like to sell his daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She’s a Yale graduate, fluent in several languages and is soon getting her MBA from Stanford. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
4. A friend of mine feels that even though the Bible says that eating shellfish is "detestable" (Leviticus 11:10), it is a lesser offense than homosexuality (s.v., your earlier Leviticus 18:22 citing). Me? I’m not so sure of that. Is being gay or a crustacean cruncher-muncher worse?
5. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, the Bible tells me it creates a pleasing odor unto the Lord (Leviticus 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them in the least. Should I smite them?
6. My eldest son is getting married this year to a girl whose father and mother are strict fundamentalist evangelicals. They have informed me that in lieu of a dowry they will be providing me with one hundred foreskins of Philistines as provided for in 1 Samuel 18:25.
I do not know - nor do I WANT to know - how or where they’re getting them. But I am hopeful you can tell me where I can exchange them for a set of bath towels or bed linens ... or something a little more practical.
7. Unfortunately, my youngest son is extremely lazy, rebellious, goes out drinking with his buddies and will not obey either me or his mother. He wants to know when the city elders stone him to death, as Deuteronomy 21:18-21 clearly directs they must, will they be using big old boulders or small stones?
8. This next one is extremely touchy, but it seems if I'm going to avoid doing a lot of laundry (not to mention possible sexual harassment lawsuits), I need some help.
I know that I am forbidden to have any contact whatsoever with a woman while she is in her period of "menstrual uncleanliness" - even to sitting on a chair where she had previously sat (Leviticus 15:19-24).
The problem at the office is, how is one supposed to know these things? It seems like merely asking the women in the office causes them to take great offense. Some help here, please.
9. Leviticus 21:18-21 has numerous restrictions about who exactly can approach the altar to worship God. (And He's clearly not an "equal access" God since the lame, deformed, crippled and even those with damaged testicles are forbidden.)
But I’m focusing on the one concerning having an eye defect. I wear glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?
10. Most of the guys I know shave on a daily basis, get their hair trimmed regularly and some even have tattoos - although these are all expressly forbidden (Leviticus 19:27-28). How should they die?
11. I know from Leviticus 11:7-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes a man unclean. So exactly what kind of brutal Biblical punishment do you think the NCAA and NFL should be meting out to all those big, burly football players? (And does wearing gloves, like some receivers and backs do, give them a possible loophole?)
12. My uncle has a farm. Year in and year out, he violates Leviticus 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field; as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread. (She really seems to like that all-season linen and wool blend).
Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them (Leviticus 24:14)? Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family gathering like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws (Leviticus 20:14)?