In the previous post I mentioned I'm both a feminist and a variety of Christian, and the odd fact that "Christians" and "feminists" were my two of my least favorite types of group on campus at Berkeley.
First of all, one major issue unrelated to either of these groups but deriving from people in general; my religion in no way diminishes my feminist beliefs, nor do my feminist beliefs make me "less religious." This is a very common misconception, related to the next one.
Christianity is not, as many people (including an alarming number of "Christians") believe, a religion of fiery damnation and annihilation. Having read the Bible, I can tell you two things: 1) The Old Testament is not actually there for the purpose that might seem obvious and 2) A very large number of people are doing the Christianity thing very wrong.
First of all, the Old Testament has been in the news a lot lately, particularly a certain Leviticus 18:22 character who tells everyone he meets "Do not have sexual relations with a man as you would with a woman; that is detestable." One side of that whole marriage issue holds this verse up as law with fiery condemnation, and the other has a variety of (increasingly snarky) retorts; the number of laws in Leviticus and the impossibility of living to all of them, for example, or the age of the document in question.
As a humorous aside, I thought I'd point out that the verse in question has, if you actually read it, nothing at all to do with marriage in particular. It's about sex, which is a related but different issue. I'mma do a marriage post in the future; don't worry, my sass is far from concluded.
Back on topic, it's my contention that both polar sides of that particular issue are wrong; the self-proclaimed "Christian" conservatives are wrong to quote Leviticus (or any part of the Bible, really) with such vehemence, and the fiery liberals on the other side are wrong to, well, be so fiery and retaliatory. Constructive debate, and the progress that tends to follow, happen when both sides come to the table with open minds, not closed fists.
Let's examine the book of Leviticus for a second, from the standpoint of Christianity. If you're not into this particular belief system, bear with me. The English name "Leviticus" is a reference to the Levites (descendants of Levi), the tribe of Israel from whom the priesthood at the time was traditionally drawn. Status as a Levite in the contemporary sense is more one of title and conferred cultural esteem than actual genealogical descent. So, essentially, Leviticus could be taken to be a "book of the priesthood," or something like that.
There's some dispute as to when (and by whom) the book of Leviticus was actually finished. Tradition holds that it was collated by Moses, because we're big fans of Moses. Scholarly research on the book maintains that it had a long incubation period and finished sometime in the Persian period, 538-332 BCE, roughly speaking. Either way, it's certainly a very old document, which provides me with a smoooooth segue into the next thing.
Leviticus is old. So old, in fact, it's actually in a whole testament just for old things, the Old Testament! This is usually pointed out by esteemed commentators, such as Macklemore, to be one of its chief failings; it's just entirely too old to have any bearing on our modern and rapidly accelerating society. This is actually pretty true, but with an important caveat; Leviticus is not irrelevant because it's old, it's reduced in importance because it's been rendered obsolete.
Leviticus is a fairly huge list of rules and edicts. Taken another way, Leviticus is an enumerated list of punishments for those who break them, to be inflicted by our mortal peers. There's the problem with Leviticus; it's about things mortals used to have to do to other mortals. Leviticus is about punishment, in different ways depending on the time-frame you believe it to have been written in. That's an excessive level of detail, but the point is this; Leviticus stands as an enumerated list of things perceived at the time as sins, mostly as a reminder, like an albatross to wear around the collective neck. At one point Yahweh was pretty pissed off with the Israelites, so he imposed an incredibly complex system of severely-enforced laws on them. Many of these probably couldn't even be taken as divinely-delivered statutes of law; people just got their deity really angry and he decided to take away their nice things. Pretty dreary, unless you know this next part.
Literally the whole point of Christianity is that a pretty cool guy named Jesus got up on a cross and talked to his dad about all of humanity's failings. The big guy in the sky was pretty impressed, and he's over being mad at humanity now; it's cool to eat shellfish, and get ice cream with girls when they're on their period, and wear polyester, and stuff. The Old Testament, Leviticus being the prime example, exists for two reasons. Firstly, it and other parts of the Bible are a history, literal or mythological. They're stories, written down as parables with a particular message. Secondly, Leviticus especially is a reminder of what that cool guy named Jesus saved people from, so we can look back at the past and say "Well, that was sure awful" as we move forward. It's like a war memorial. No one builds those as a declaration of their support for war; it's a somber reminder.
So, given that Jesus came along and did some really cool metaphysical wizardry that I won't discuss (there's actually a lot of debate about that even with Christianity) in order to change the Old Testament from absolute law into stark reminder... why are we all so worked up about it?
This is getting rather long in the tooth, and I feel I have to continue it at a later date because there's a huge amount left to say. For now, however, let me say this: Christianity is fundamentally a doctrine of peace, acceptance, and respect for other people. Don't let the very loud, very violent slice of the cheese ruin the whole wheel.
TL;DR People are misrepresenting Christianity; life's good.
Christianity is not, as many people (including an alarming number of "Christians") believe, a religion of fiery damnation and annihilation. Having read the Bible, I can tell you two things: 1) The Old Testament is not actually there for the purpose that might seem obvious and 2) A very large number of people are doing the Christianity thing very wrong.
First of all, the Old Testament has been in the news a lot lately, particularly a certain Leviticus 18:22 character who tells everyone he meets "Do not have sexual relations with a man as you would with a woman; that is detestable." One side of that whole marriage issue holds this verse up as law with fiery condemnation, and the other has a variety of (increasingly snarky) retorts; the number of laws in Leviticus and the impossibility of living to all of them, for example, or the age of the document in question.
As a humorous aside, I thought I'd point out that the verse in question has, if you actually read it, nothing at all to do with marriage in particular. It's about sex, which is a related but different issue. I'mma do a marriage post in the future; don't worry, my sass is far from concluded.
Back on topic, it's my contention that both polar sides of that particular issue are wrong; the self-proclaimed "Christian" conservatives are wrong to quote Leviticus (or any part of the Bible, really) with such vehemence, and the fiery liberals on the other side are wrong to, well, be so fiery and retaliatory. Constructive debate, and the progress that tends to follow, happen when both sides come to the table with open minds, not closed fists.
Let's examine the book of Leviticus for a second, from the standpoint of Christianity. If you're not into this particular belief system, bear with me. The English name "Leviticus" is a reference to the Levites (descendants of Levi), the tribe of Israel from whom the priesthood at the time was traditionally drawn. Status as a Levite in the contemporary sense is more one of title and conferred cultural esteem than actual genealogical descent. So, essentially, Leviticus could be taken to be a "book of the priesthood," or something like that.
There's some dispute as to when (and by whom) the book of Leviticus was actually finished. Tradition holds that it was collated by Moses, because we're big fans of Moses. Scholarly research on the book maintains that it had a long incubation period and finished sometime in the Persian period, 538-332 BCE, roughly speaking. Either way, it's certainly a very old document, which provides me with a smoooooth segue into the next thing.
Leviticus is old. So old, in fact, it's actually in a whole testament just for old things, the Old Testament! This is usually pointed out by esteemed commentators, such as Macklemore, to be one of its chief failings; it's just entirely too old to have any bearing on our modern and rapidly accelerating society. This is actually pretty true, but with an important caveat; Leviticus is not irrelevant because it's old, it's reduced in importance because it's been rendered obsolete.
Leviticus is a fairly huge list of rules and edicts. Taken another way, Leviticus is an enumerated list of punishments for those who break them, to be inflicted by our mortal peers. There's the problem with Leviticus; it's about things mortals used to have to do to other mortals. Leviticus is about punishment, in different ways depending on the time-frame you believe it to have been written in. That's an excessive level of detail, but the point is this; Leviticus stands as an enumerated list of things perceived at the time as sins, mostly as a reminder, like an albatross to wear around the collective neck. At one point Yahweh was pretty pissed off with the Israelites, so he imposed an incredibly complex system of severely-enforced laws on them. Many of these probably couldn't even be taken as divinely-delivered statutes of law; people just got their deity really angry and he decided to take away their nice things. Pretty dreary, unless you know this next part.
Literally the whole point of Christianity is that a pretty cool guy named Jesus got up on a cross and talked to his dad about all of humanity's failings. The big guy in the sky was pretty impressed, and he's over being mad at humanity now; it's cool to eat shellfish, and get ice cream with girls when they're on their period, and wear polyester, and stuff. The Old Testament, Leviticus being the prime example, exists for two reasons. Firstly, it and other parts of the Bible are a history, literal or mythological. They're stories, written down as parables with a particular message. Secondly, Leviticus especially is a reminder of what that cool guy named Jesus saved people from, so we can look back at the past and say "Well, that was sure awful" as we move forward. It's like a war memorial. No one builds those as a declaration of their support for war; it's a somber reminder.
So, given that Jesus came along and did some really cool metaphysical wizardry that I won't discuss (there's actually a lot of debate about that even with Christianity) in order to change the Old Testament from absolute law into stark reminder... why are we all so worked up about it?
This is getting rather long in the tooth, and I feel I have to continue it at a later date because there's a huge amount left to say. For now, however, let me say this: Christianity is fundamentally a doctrine of peace, acceptance, and respect for other people. Don't let the very loud, very violent slice of the cheese ruin the whole wheel.
TL;DR People are misrepresenting Christianity; life's good.
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