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Obama is Right on Leviticus

If you haven't been paying attention (and I don't blame you if you haven't), there has been an ongoing controversy between James Dobson and Barack Obama over whether the Bible endorses slavery and prohibits shellfish. While I don't support everything this short video has to say, it does quote directly from the passage in Leviticus that endorses slavery and proscribes rules for buying and selling slaves. There has been a lot of discussion elsewhere about whether or not the Bible actually endorses slavery. I think the answer is "yes."

Making public policy based on the Bible or any religious document is a dangerous business.

Comments

I haven't seen the video yet but I think on the verse quoted from Exodus 21:16 the answer is a resounding No. Please comment.

regards
Percy

I find this controversy to be hilarious. People, arguing Biblical hermeneutics, in politics.

It doesn't get any better.

Two things Obama and Dobson should remember when discussing the Bible:

The first five books present themselves as being written to The Chosen People, living under a theocracy. (We are neither the Chosen People, nor living under a theocracy, so you have to be careful when you go to draw lessons for our politics here-n-now from what the Pentateuch said to the Hebrews then-n-there.)

Second, Christians take the teachings of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law presented in the Pentateuch and expounded upon by the Prophets. (So if a Christian wants to be on firm ground when making a claim that something in the "Old Testament" should be strictly enforced today, he'd have to show you where he finds it in Jesus' teachings.)

That's right, just scribble out any of the parts you don't agree with anymore. Anything that you still do, of course, is still the word of God. Remind me where in the new testament Jesus told us to condemn gays, because that is one lesson that Dobson does seem to have taken to heart from Leviticus.

The Bible is the word of God to and through the writers of scripture. As such, it reflects what God was trying to say and the imperfections of the writers who are informed by their cultures.

I think we have learned a little about shellfish, slavery and homosexuality since a group of Hebrew priests wrote Leviticus and attributed their work to Moses.

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