Ban the Bible? (20 minute read)

WARNING! I’ll be referencing sections of the holy bible that provide graphic depictions of the human body, bestiality, mass, murder, rape, slavery, incest, sodomy, mutilation, depravity, etc. so if you’re easily triggered by these types of things don’t read any further. Children especially! Well, teenagers too probably. And adults that are offended by these kinds of descriptions. People that don’t like written soft porn, hard porn or just any kind of porn.

Opening Example (Rape and incest)

10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the chamber, that I may eat from your hand.” And Tamar took the cakes she had made and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother. 11 But when she brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, “Come, lie with me, my sister.” 12 She answered him, “No, my brother, do not violate[a] me, for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do this outrageous thing. 13 As for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as one of the outrageous fools in Israel. Now therefore, please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.” 14 But he would not listen to her, and being stronger than she, he violated her and lay with her.

2 Samuel 13:10-14, ESV

Trigger

            For those that might not know it the bible has a lot, and I mean a LOT, of scripture about questionable sex in addition to all the violent language about mayhem, carnage, looting and slavery. Education about slavery is another hot button issue for the Trump Republican Party (TRP) because of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Our nation’s history about slavery makes white conservatives afraid that their children will be triggered. On the plus side for the TRP, while the bible does not talk against slavery, it does provide instructions about how slaves (property) should be treated.

1“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. 2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, a he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. 3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. 5 But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever. 7“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. 8 If she does not please her master, who has designated herb for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. 9 If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. 10 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. 11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

Exodus 21, 1-11 English Standard Version (ESV)

            But I digress.

            Let’s get back to aforementioned triggers. I’m only going to reference a few passages of scripture out of the hundreds there are to choose from.

            Some years back I watched one of those ‘Man on the Street’ videos. In the one I watched the guy doing the interview was reading passages about violence from the Koran to people and asking them what they thought about it. People were horrified at the passages that were read. The kicker was that the guy had read passages from the bible to them. He had simply concealed the bible with a cover that said Koran. Reading about God telling someone to kill every man, woman and child for some transgression can be kind of off putting to some people. NOT Evangelical Conservatives though. They’re into the whole deal, especially the punishment scripture.

26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

Exodus 32:26-29, ESV

Tough Love.

            So let’s start off with the old standby Leviticus. He’s kind of the go-to guy for rules and punishment. Here’s what Levi has to say about sex with animals. Should we corrupt little hearts and minds with this kind of information?

15 "'If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he is to be put to death, and you must kill the animal. 16 "'If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads

Leviticus 20:15-16 New International Version (NIV)

            Kind of extreme, don’t you think? Kill the animal? I mean after all it seems to me that the animal is kind of an innocent bystander victim here. Just walking around on their four legs minding their own business and Bam! Wham bam thank you mam! At least the man and woman were punished equally though.

So there’s that.

            Let’s move on to dealing with a smart-mouthed child.

“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

Exodus 21, 17, ESV

            Again, seems a little harsh, but the threat might work to rein in the problem child until the time comes that they leave the house. These days that might be a little difficult since kids seem to hang around until late in their 20s, but rules are rules.

            I can’t imagine what questions a child might have for a librarian or teacher after reading some of these passages. We haven’t even got to the sex part yet other than bestiality. According to conservatives only predators want to teach this kind of stuff to children. What about sex in the bible? Obviously the bible doesn’t belong anywhere that children might have access to it until they’re, hm, I don’t know, what age? When is it okay to start reading this kind of stuff?

Stuff like this,

18 When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. 19 Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt 20 and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses. 21 Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed[a] your young breasts.”

Ezekiel 23:18-21, ESV

(SIDE STORY

            The part about the donkey made me think of a story from my misspent youth.

            Way back when I was a teenager I was at the zoo with one of my small cousins. It was a family outing and we went different directions. I ended up at the rhinoceros exhibition. Well it seems that the male rhinoceros was having amorous thoughts about the female rhinoceros. He had the largest…member…that I had ever seen and was apparently getting ready to use it. Uh oh. I got ready to get my little cousin out of there before as Ricky Ricardo would say “I had some splainin’ to do.” Too late. My cousin had already caught sight of the member. Whereupon he said, make that shouted, in his extremely loud little voice, “LOOK AT THAT! WHAT IS THAT?! I quickly reached down and grabbed him by his waist to haul him out of there. Unfortunately he was gripping the railing tightly with his little hands while continuing to shout his questions to any that were listening about what it was that he was seeing. I had to peel his little fingers loose from the railing before I could make our getaway. I found his mom and quickly transferred custody and told her that she might have to answer some difficult questions that I myself was not prepared to answer due to lacking the necessary training in this area.

END OF STORY)

And this.

30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.

Genesis 19:30-35, ESV

Just what does it take to be a good dad?

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

Genesis 19:4-8, ESV

Context is everything.

            This next bit raises lots of questions. There’s a lot of back story for anything having to do with David and Saul but that’s just true for the bible in general.

25 Then Saul said, “Thus shall you say to David, ‘The king desires no bride-price except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, that he may be avenged of the king's enemies.’” Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. 26 And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. Before the time had expired, 27 David arose and went, along with his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife.

1 Samuel 18:25-27, ESV

            It’s going to take a whole lot of context to explain that foreskin part.

            I could go on and on with scripture like this. I have to ask: What purpose does any of this serve by being in the bible?

There’s no point.

What is the point?

            Yes, there’s a lot more in the bible. Good stuff. Good news. The bible wasn’t written for historical accuracy. It was created to tell stories. The New Testament especially is quite a story. It’s a story that made it down through the ages. But those verses that I referenced are just a smattering of the hundreds of verses like them that are in the bible. As in life there’s ugliness mixed in with the good even in the New Testament. It’s real.

            People just keep bibles lying around all over the place. My grandmother gave me my first bible when I was a teenager. There’s no “Adults Only!” warning about the bible having extreme content and that it should be kept away from children that can read. There’s a lot of filthy twisted stuff in the bible. Who’s being groomed with this kind of material? People looking to take over?

            Evangelical “Christians” have long weaponized the bible to suit their own purposes: to punish queer people with the “clobber passages,” for example. What I have done here is weaponize the bible in turn, to make another point. My point being that you can’t legitimately pick and choose the parts of the bible you want people to take literally, and those you don’t. Because if we’re supposed to take Leviticus 18:22, then we should also take literally the instruction in Leviticus 20:13 (to kill both participants in the act described in 18:22). (I realize that there are some who would, in fact, endorse such action, but most would not.) Or a father giving his daughters up for sex in order to protect the guests in his house. That’s some pretty extreme hospitality being practiced there.

            Jesus, a man that I consider my lord and savior, had a far different countenance than what is conveyed in the verses that I referenced. His disciples do make some questionable comments but Jesus stays away from that kind of language, although there are times when it’s necessary to read between the lines. (As an example god created man and woman and everything in between.) But he provides direction in even those areas.

            One MAJOR POINT I’m making is that the holy bible that many claim is infallible has far worse material than other books that the TRP has deemed inappropriate. The bible is full of passages about slaughter, sex and animal sacrifice. And when I say slaughter I mean SLAUGHTER! We’re talking men, women including pregnant women, children and babies up to and including newborns. Killing on a scale like the Russians are doing in Ukraine. Frankly if one of my kids when growing up had started biblically sacrificing and mutilating animals in the backyard I would have put them in therapy and prayed that I wasn’t raising serial killers.

            I believe that Jesus knew how words can be twisted especially by those against him and his ideas of ministering to the poor, the downtrodden, the lame, and the sick, those that live at the fringes of polite society. Different people. That’s why he provided these words. Two commandments that superseded all others.

Love God. Love people.

House of cards.

            Jesus didn’t try to take over Rome. He didn’t try to change Rome’s laws to suit his personal vision. He kept his morality and integrity. His goal wasn’t to take over Rome but to provide and alternative of choice for humanity. He led by example. Jesus as well as his disciples did not seek power even though power sought him. Most importantly.

Jesus was a LIBERAL.

Rambo Jesus

            In order for Evangelicals to maintain their agenda of seizing power at any cost they have created a Rambo Jesus because the liberal that Jesus was does not suit their need to be power brokers that can deliver a President and nation with Russia serving as their model. They, like Trump their “Chosen One” , are the true victims. They jump through complicated word games to dodge the teachings and examples that Jesus provided. Their Rambo Jesus drives people away from the faith.

            With Jesus as a liberal the goals of Evangelicals of the TRP and conservatives in general simply aren’t supported, including their religious stance on abortion, gays with their don’t-say-gay laws, anti- masking/vaccine laws. They support punishment to stop abortion. (That has never worked to stopping abortion.) Their Rambo Republican Jesus is an anti-Jesus.

NOTE:  I’ve talked about abortion before. Here and here as well as Jesus and his disciples qualifying as  socialists.

Woke Republicans want to ban bible from schools and libraries!

            So, since the Trump Republican Party (TRP) is banning books they don’t like in red states what will happen when they get to the bible, a book that has, in addition to all the above passages,  instructions for causing an abortion. Oh, my gosh! The Trump Supremes just outlawed women’s federal right to abortion so they can start throwing women in jail!

19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you.

20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”—

21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse[b] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell.

22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.” Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”

Numbers 5:19-22, NIV

A different Jesus

            Tens of millions of genuine Christians follow a Jesus who preaches forgiveness and trying to do better. A Jesus that ministers to everyone, including Evangelical TRP people. Christians that will serve cake and flowers to those that ask, Christians that ask for forgiveness, serve others and do ministries that feed, clothe and nurture those in need. Christians that don’t seek to create state religion and force their beliefs on others. Christians that seek ways to end abortion like eliminating the need through education, making contraception available and providing health care to all while seeking to end crushing poverty.

Christians that follow the Jesus of the bible.