Don't Blame It on the Bible

[Plantaganet]

7. Plagiarism is regrettable -

- but I hope the author of these words won't mind too much my quoting them here. Simply put, I can't imagine a more succinct, accurate way of expressing this:

"1- No one can really objectively declare their interpretation (of the Bible) superior to another. While there's a logical, secular argument for most social issues, arguing from scripture is a zero-sum game.

2- There are passages of the Bible for which historical context and interpretation are irrelevant.

The book of Leviticus commands homosexual men be put to death. There is no alternative interpretation of this passage that does not conclude "gay + male = dead". If we look at it in its historical context, we can conclude gay-hating was du jure in the Bronze Age Levant, that this wasn't outside the normative attitudes of the day, but that doesn't change the passage's meaning. It's a horrible passage, and like it or not, it is in the book. The argument, therefore, is not "The Bible is a good book, people just read it wrong", but "The Bible is a good book, if you ignore all the bad parts".

The same logic applies to virtually any work out there. Twilight, I am sure, is a terrific movie, if you ignore all the crappy parts."

The big question this raises for me, though, is why can't Christians simply accept the fact that "the good book" isn't so good?