Just heard about "The Sins of Scripture" , by Rev. John Spong

[seafan]

Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love

Author: John Shelby Spong



I was listening to Mark and Mark on Morning Sedition on AAR this morning (6-22), and they were interviewing this author. He is an Episcopal bishop, if I remember correctly, and he was speaking about how certain texts in the Bible are seized upon by Christian extremist groups and are perverted into a mantra of hatred against women, homosexuals, the poor; to justify violence, murder, discrimination and oppression.

He describes these things in great detail in his book, and exposes how certain parts of the Bible's text are used to justify the subjugation of women, of homophobia, of environmental harm, of anti-Semitism, and other oppression.

He also discusses how we can overcome this misuse of these specific texts in the Bible, which, IMO, will be a major key to reversing the demonizing messages that extremist groups calling themselves Christian spread to many followers.




A sample of the texts Spong explores:
Genesis 2:18-23 She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
Leviticus 18:22 'You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination.'
Proverbs 23:13, 14 'Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. If you beat him with a rod, you will save his life from Sheol'.



I will cross post this to the "New Christian Alliance" thread on the greatest page, because it is yet more welcome evidence of the emergence of progressive Christians. Yay!!!



Here it is on Amazon if y'all are interested:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060762055/002-6220899-9275229?v=glance

[woodsprite]

1. My fundie sister-in-law believes all that and adheres

to Dobson's teachings regarding rearing her 5 kids. The latest was she made her 6yo boy sit with a sliver of Ivory soap on his tongue for a minute for saying some "not nice" things about a neighbor of theirs.

It was a breath of fresh air meeting with our minister last night and going over Presbyterian history. Seems the Presby's had to register with the Commonwealth of Virginia as political dissidents in colonial times. Quite a bit of the doctrine that built our country's democratic principals came from a basis in the Presby. church.

We also chatted about the beliefs of the founders of our country, the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the creation of the Jeffersonian Bible. This was a class that was required before my husband accept a position on Session. Really interesting and appropos to today's political situation -- which was also discussed during break. ;)

[Boojatta]

2. It sounds interesting. Let's hope that we can get a discussion started.

Unfortunately, your link didn't work for me. However, I've been having a few computer problems lately. Maybe the trouble is at my end.