Even my locval Jehovanhs Witness Kingdom Hall is getting in on the act with a talk on; " Bible Principles, can they help us with todays problems?" I am willing to bet that they think they can.
I so want to turn up to that meeting (after all I am invited) with my male slave dressed in leather and on a lead. After all God doesn't have a problem with his people owning slaves. But he does have a problem with man-on-man love, namely anal sex. It is forbidden in Leviticus (twice) along with round haircuts, eating shellfish and the wearing of mixed fibres.
Perhaps I should turn up with a female slave, after all, womern are seen pretty much as property in the good book. Eve got us in to this mess in the first place and since then, women have had to know their place. They can be killed, raped and tortured under biblical law. If a woman is raped, she has to marry her rapist;
"If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her."
I could go on but here's the pitch. Find a bible-belt nutjob religious community something like Westboro and give them amnesty from the law of the land. Let them take their holy book into their own 'gated' community and get on with it. The men will be on a power trip, the women even more abused, the children damaged for life.
Drop a few weirdos in there as well, perhaps some people wanting redemption and if you want it to get really interesting have some other faiths in the mix. If there is some conflict, put it out to a public vote as to who gets stoned to death or has their hand cut off. We could even have a panel of 'Scholars' on TV each week to provide spiritual guidance (God seems to have lost interest lately). Would Anjam Choudray be the new Simon Cowell?
Some good must come from it. Religious people will surely wake up to the contradictory, sadistic, nasty piece of work for what the Abrahamic holy books are. Or will they continue to live the lie so they can look forward to eternal life?
"Dancing on Ice" could become "Dicing with Death". What do you think?
4 comments:
Nice pitch, but you need another name for the show. How about "Cause I said so", or "Mysterious ways". I wonder what kind of PG rating "stoning" would give the show.....
I seriously, seriously object to being thrown in with "religious people". I wouldn't dream of throwing all atheists into the same pot. Please, don't generalise.
I might point out two other points;
a. The slavery endorsed in Biblical times was not slavery as we think of it today - indeed, William Wilberforce, who was the driving force behind it's abolition in the UK, objected to it *because* he believed all men were made in the image of God, an idea he got from the Bible.
b. If you actually read the whole of passages you see that women are not treated as property at all. Ephesians 5, for example, yes says that wives should obey their husbands, but it all says that husbands should love their wives "as Christ loves the Church", i.e. to the extent that they should be prepared to die for them. A truly loving husband, especially to this extent, will not force their wives to do anything bad. The obediance is a sign of trust on the part of the wife which the husband should live up to.
Yours,
Matt
I might add regarding the quote from Leviticus regarding rape that this was seen as a punishment for the man, not the woman. They were very different times and it's a mistake to place our modern contexts and presuppositions onto a totally different culture.
Hi Matt
It was a little inconvenient of God to send his son down to a Stone Age' backwater that was culturally way behind several other civilisations. He could also have provided revised instructions as there are many different interpretations as to words and context.
It seems to me that nothing much has changed. There is much still slavery and misogyny in the World.
All you have is interpertation, the same as everyone else. Are you starting from the premise that the Bible is the word of God? Just asking so I don't make the mistake of generalising again.
Regards
Phil.
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