Embraced by God...

To many, these verses are the debate over the GLBT and the Bible. I strongly disagree. Our Biblical discussion is way bigger than just a handful of verses that are typically read with little or no concern for the context in which they were written.

Context is everything—especially if conservative Christians are correct in their belief that the whole Bible was written by humans under the direct inspiration of God in such a way that the original texts of the Bible were basically without error and totally authoritative for our lives. If this is true, then it is hugely important that individual verses are understood within the context of the whole Bible, not just one sentence or paragraph of it. To pluck a verse out of the Bible and start bashing anyone with it is to deny the validity of the Bible as the Word of God, for no verse can legitimately stand on its own if the Bible as a whole is God’s Word to us.

All this would be great if we actually had the original texts that compose the Bible to examine but we don’t. The textual fragments and complete books available to scholars are mere copies typically made hundreds of years after the originals, and none of these copies are identical. As the original texts were hand copied over the years, and the copies themselves became copies of copies, changes were undeniably made. While many changes were accidental copying errors, it is beyond any debate that others were intentionally made by the copyists in order to change or shade a given text’s meaning (e.g., John 7:53-8:11 is likely fraudulent—it’s not in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts). So at least to some extent, our Bible today has errors in it—even conservative scholars admit to this.

Speaking of these "original texts," we need to note that the Bible is an edited book—it contains 66 separate books that were collected and put together by various people. The Bible has two main sections: the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament contains the Scriptures Christianity inherited from Judaism—the Jewish Bible—and it was put together by Judaism’s religious elite (i.e., editors) over hundreds of years. Likewise, the New Testament—the books by Jesus’ followers—is an edited collection of writings that were written over many decades in the years following Jesus’ death. One reason the New Testament had to be edited is that there were many competing writings circulating throughout the various Christian churches across the Roman Empire. Some very popular books like the Epistle of Barnabas were eventually left out, while the rather dubious Revelation of St. John just barely squeaked in against popular opinion due to the support it received from St. Augustine.

From all this you might have already gathered the fact that the first few hundred years of Christianity—the Early Church—wasn’t a franchise operation. Unlike today’s McDonalds™ restaurants which strive to be identical throughout the world, the Early Church varied significantly from region to region, and even within regions, churches held to their own beliefs and practices. The "Bible" wasn’t set in stone—and major Church doctrines (key beliefs) were still largely debatable. Eventually some factions won and others lost. In all of this we come to realize the Bible isn’t simply a book that was gloriously handed down to us from God on High; rather, it is a compiled book with a very human history that reflects several hundred years of religious power struggles within the Early Church.

From this we can see that inspiration was likely a much more earthy process than the mystical notions we may have previously held about how the Bible came to be written. The truth is that God let a whole bunch of flawed, even bigoted and misinformed, real people write and edit the Bible. And "He" inspired them to tell "His" story from their vantage point—and they did a pretty good job. The Bible was never meant to be an end in itself; rather, it’s a guide that gains meaning as we learn to embrace our own journey with God.

As we look at the verses typically used to attack GLBT persons by conservative Christians, I hope you’ll find my case compelling. If you’re still not sure, hang on, for the third section will blow everything you’ve learned here out of the water—I don’t even need this second section to convincingly win the debate against the Religious Right, but I’ve included it to strengthen you against their attacks. It’s okay to skip ahead if you must, but this Bible section is the next logical piece of the puzzle. Enjoy!