Reply to Why do some care about rules about gay people but ignore rule about shrimp, rape, and stoning women?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't eat shellfish.

Why didn't you put the word "Christian" in your post title, since you clearly were not thinking about Jews? (BTW, kosher observant Jews vary in their positions on gays)   Even though the books you reference were given to US, are written in a language most of y'all don't speak, etc, etc.

#culturalappropriation [/quote]

I recognize there are some Jews who don't eat shellfish, don't cut their hair/beards etc.

Yes, this post is about Christians. As to why, I backspaced it to fit my whole title in..[/quote]

You wrote a long OP that did not mention Jews, and mentioned Christianity, but did not say you were specifically asking Christians.

I understand you are interested in exploring the issue of hypocrisy among Christians, but I do find the tendency to "disappear" Jews in these discussions frustrating. The entire issue is rooted in the (arguably selective) early Christian project of deemphasizing Jewish religious law, of dejudaizing Christianity while retaining those aspects of the Hebrew scriptures that were useful to Christians.  I think by ignoring that project, and its relationship to Christian 'supercessionism' you can't get a full picture of these issues in Christianity. [/quote]

So how should the conversation go differently?[/quote]

I would have put in the OP an acknowledgement that many Jews do follow the laws of the Torah (please don't call it the "old testament" outside a specifically Christian place, which AFAICT DCUM is not) and asked why Christian who generally do not follow those laws (with whatever examples you want) do follow this one, or something to that effect.

Your way of putting it effectively put out of mind the people descended (religiously and physically) from the very people discussed in the Hebrew bible.[/quote]

yes, good point. I am interested in why Christians in particular only follow some of these laws. Although I suppose I could ask the same question of extremely conservative Jews who do not eat shrimp, do not cut their hair/beards but also do not want rapists to marry their victims or want non-virgin brides to be stoned to death[/quote]

One of Jesus’ central messages was that simply following dietary, clothing, and other rules wasn’t the way to heaven. This didn’t sit well with the religious leadership at the time. So the gospel of Matthew records this:

Matthew 22:34
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
35 One of them, an expert in the Law, tested him with this question:
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

There’s also this from Matthew 15:11
What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.

Many Christians take these (and other passages) as basically saying that Jesus doesn’t insist on following Old Testament rules and is mostly about love for your neighbor and your enemy (which is the new part). There’s a fundie on DCUM who disagrees, but I’ll say right now that s/he is a minority.

For the New Testament re homosexuality, you have to wait until Paul’s letters.  Jesus is not on record as having spoken about homosexuality. Re Paul, first, he obviously wasn’t Jesus. Second, many put his writings into the context of pastoral letters to growing communities, which makes them very time-specific. *Ducks for the incoming screeds from the resident fundie, who again, is in a minority.*[/quote]

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