Thompson, I was a little surprised that you wanted any reference to the Bible suppressed. It exists, it is a document that has been part of history and tradition for a long time, and it's something that people try to use to support their views without ever consulting it. So-called "bible-believing" Christians often tell how the Bible condemns homosexuality. It's important for them to be confronted with the fact that the Bible does not make much reference to homosexuality at all.

I have a degree in Theology and I work in the Catholic Church, but yet I am one of many Catholics who support the right of gays to marry. I've been here at Mudcat since three months after it opened in 1996, and people here can tell you that I don't preach my religion at Mudcat. But when Pete say the Bible says thus-and-such and even implies that I can back him up, I would certainly think it proper to post information from the Bible to refute that. To my mind, homosexuality was not an issue among Jews and Christians at the time the Bible was written. The Bible makes some minor references to homosexuality, but it really doesn't discuss the matter with any level of thoroughness. Using the Bible to condemn homosexuality, requires a high level of conjecture about what the Bible writers meant to say. And same thing with Jesus giving a "definition of marriage" - he just plain didn't, but "bible-believing" Christians like to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the Bible to support their pre-conceived notions (which, of course, they deny that they do).

You seem to be an open-minded person, so I was surprised that you woud want discussion of the Bible to be pigeonholed somewhere out of public view on Mudcat. The Bible is a document of great historical significance, even for people who don't profess religious faith. It is a chronicle of two ancient groups in the context of the beliefs that were at the center of their lives. It is the best-preserved, most-used, and most widely available ancient document in existence. Even if you don't use it as a basis for your belief system, it can help you understand the many people who do.

Conservative Christians, particularly fundamentalist American evangelical Christians, take a particular view of the Bible that I think is invalid. Their rigid, strangely literal, legalistic use of the Bible to support their preconceived notions, gives Christianity and the Bible a bad name. I don't think the Bible writers intended the strange, judgmental interpretation that these fundamentalists have come up with, an interpretation that ignores the cultural, historical, and literary context in which the Bible was written. Heck, most of them can't see the creation story and the story of Jonah and the fish (not whale) as literary devices.

I don't think these pages are a proper platform for preaching, but the purpose of our BS section is for factual, civil discussion of all issues other than music. There are some Mudcatters who think we should delete posts that are distasteful to them, particularly conservative opinions - but if we didn't allow dissenting opinions, what would we have to discuss? The one thing we can't allow, is combat. When the combat gets too heated, discussion is impossible, and then we have to shut things down.

-Joe-