Biblical commentary that makes sense [honey and sting]

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http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/10/26/coogan.bible.family.values/index.html?hpt=C2

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There are 9 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

There have been so many times, when someone starts going off on how the Bible is the best thing ever for values, etc, I want to ask them if they've read it. I suspect the answer is usually no.

(I've gone through Tanach. Still haven't managed to get through the gospels. one of these years...)

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The biggest stupidity about "the bible" is to speak of it as something monolithic. It's got MANY different "values" -- plenty of them contradictory.

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The Bible: After your brothers sell you into slavery for fun and profit, it is totally okay to frame them for theft!

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well, obviously. after all, your dreams told you to!

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Yep.

Cherry-picking the parts of the Bible you like and using it to brow-beat others is hypocritically arbitrary. While some people do believe the claim that every word of the Bible is equally divine and authoritative, I have yet to meet anyone who actually lives that way.

I think the "family values" crew may actually share a great deal of values in common with each other (they seem to understand what they mean when they use the label), but they'd do better not to claim it all came from the Bible. They should write their own manifesto, imo.

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yup. stop using my tradition and thinking you know what it means, without actually studying it.

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A recent fad that has swept through Unitarian Universalism is to have a person or a study group rewrite the ten commandments for modern sensibilities and values (yes, we are an arrogant, blasphemous lot). Mom's group replaced the first commandment (um, the Jewish first and second commandments) with "Respect other people's beliefs," and the prohibition on graven images became "Encourage creative endeavors." :-) They threw out quite a few and added things like, "Take care of the Earth." I think only "Do not murder" and "Do not steal" passed their review intact.

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