The Biblical "basis" for segregating Blacks is another one of those situations of certain people wanting to find some reason in the Bible for oppressing or excluding someone, attempting to justify it by "cherry-picking" a verse here and a verse there, and putting these previously unrelated verses together. One contention is that Blacks are the descendants of Cain, the first murderer, cast out of Eden. The dark skin is considered by the advocates of this view as "the Mark of Cain." Another is that Blacks are the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah, who allegedly committed some unspecified sin, and was banished for it. The most vile thing he did that has any Biblical basis is that he saw his father, Noah, lying naked in his tent in a drunken sleep, and he went into the tent and covered Noah with a blanket.

No Biblical basis that any reputable theologian would ever endorse, nevertheless, one heard one or the other of these quoted as reasons for racial segregation at its best and a justification for enslaving Blacks at its most aggregious.

Regarding homosexuality, it was God's command that the Hebrews "go forth and multiply." Since homosexuality does not produce offspring, nor does "coitus interruptus" (Onanism), or masturbation, these activities were regarded as disobeying God's command, therefore sins.

This "cherry-picking" of verses, one from here, another from there, and still another from somewhere else, taking them out of context and recombining them to support what one wants to "prove" accounts for the vast majority of pure, unadulterated crap that passes for "religious principles" these days. But this is nothing new. Even the Bible itself, as we know it now, was a picking and choosing from a far huger collection of scrolls and manuscripts.

The Bible, if read as an anthology of stories, myths, poems, and legends is one of the world's greatest pieces of literature. But as the pastor of Central Lutheran Church in Seattle said as she held up a copy of the Bible, "This is not a rule book. This is not a history book. It is a book filled with questions!"

Thus endeth the lesson for today. Go in peace.

Don Firth

P. S. When I was in the English Department at the University of Washington, I took a course entitled "The Bible as Literature" (the same professor, David C. Fowler, also taught "The Popular Ballad as Literature"). When one reads the Bible in the same way that one reads any other literary anthology—instead of hopping from around and reading individual verses—it becomes a whole different thing entirely.

P. P. S. By the way, GfS, I have mentioned a number of times on this thread that there are a large number of churches in the United States and in a number of other countries, signatories to the "Affirmaton of Welcome," who welcome gays and lesbians and include them fully in the sacraments of the church—which includes marriage (whether local civil law recognizes it or not). So your complaint that gays and lesbians are trying to force their way into churches who don't want them is a bit of a straw man.