So wow, first off, people who waste their time reading me will be shocked, shocked I say, to find out I actually am a member of the Good Book. Just not the biggest fan on how other people use it.
This little tidbit from Kerry Eleveld's diary really stuck in my craw:
But frankly, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has a shot at winning Iowa but nowhere else, really took the wedding cake.
“Let me be clear: I’m not backing off because what I’m saying is true,” he said. “We’re criminalizing Christianity in this country by telling people who hold to an orthodox worldview of biblical marriage that if you still believe that … you will be guilty of discrimination, which could result in some kind of civil or criminal action against you.”
Here we get into the dangerous world of what a "Real" Christian is by being those who are allowed to define the "orthodox" worldview. Especially among protestants of any flavor, though I think the Pope still fulfills that capacity for The Church.
Being a freethinking Lutheran, I believe both paths lead to dogma and dogma combine with civics equals a theocracy. Men like Cruz and Huckabee want to define that theocracy, especially when the law comes to the LGBT community.
Especially with marriage.
This has always confused me.
Now the crux of their argeement, especially if they are citing Jesus, instead of the mad house rules set up in Book of Leviticus, they will cite Matthew 19. I actually know the Bible and the Torah like the back of my hand, the Koran I still gotta look up. What can I say, I am fan of what any son of Abraham has written.
If you follow the Book of Leviticus to the letter, though, you also believe in Slavery, with a big S, and stoning people in the town square for saying "God Damn It". Seriously, that's in there.
That's why most demagogues these days go with my man Matthew:
Matthew 19:1-12
This is usually their go to:
3 The proud religious law-keepers came to Jesus. They tried to trap Him by saying, “Does the Law say a man can divorce his wife for any reason?” 4 He said to them, “Have you not read that He Who made them in the first place made them man and woman? 5 It says, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will live with his wife. The two will become one.’ 6 So they are no longer two but one. Let no man divide what God has put together.”
7 The proud religious law-keepers said to Jesus, “Then why did the Law of Moses allow a man to divorce his wife if he put it down in writing and gave it to her?” 8 Jesus said to them, “Because of your hard hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives. It was not like that from the beginning. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sex sins, and marries another, is guilty of sex sins in marriage. Whoever marries her that is divorced is guilty of sex sins in marriage.”
This is one of the few times Jesus brings up marriage and interestingly gives people the out of adultery for ending a marriage in divorce. This was even more liberal than The Church up until the time of King James in England.
More importantly they cite, the two will become one in flesh, the man and wife.
This is from Genesis, Chapter 2 22:24
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man." 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
They usually leave out verse 25, because then you realize the story is Adam and Eve and this is the bird and the bees section of the Bible. This is about how to go forth and multiply. This is also the oldest part of the Bible. This is talking about how to make babies.
Which sounds absurd, but to this day there are still stories about couples sleeping next to each other for years and never having kids because of 'how are babies made?'
This took care of that, now go become one flesh and go forth and multiply via babies as instructed.
This is important because of how Matthew's Chapter ends.
Matthew 19:10-12
10 His followers said to Him, “If that is the way of a man with his wife, it is better not to be married.” 11 But Jesus said to them, “Not all men are able to do this, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are some men who from birth will never be able to have children. There are some men who have been made so by men. There are some men who have had themselves made that way because of the holy nation of heaven. The one who is able to do this, let him do it.”
Now here is where being a very liberal Freethinking Lutheran usually got us burned at the stake.
I believe, as most civilized people do, people are born paths of sexuality, paths as varied as the rainbow.
Let's talk about gay men, since Jesus referred to men. Now if a man is born gay and finds love and happiness with another gay man, they will never become one flesh and have a shared biological child. Lesbians I can see, but where would men get that extra part of the x chromosome? So those claiming science can tell me how that can happen.
So gay men won't go forth and multiple, got it. Neither will eunuchs and priests who for some reason cut off their own reproductive ability, as was the style at the time.
Jesus never defines marriages here as between a man and woman, as many conservative Bible thumpers say, but Jesus saying such union of people will never generate kids. Jesus is referencing the birds and bees section in Genesis we talked about earlier.
At the end, Jesus even appears to give the green light with:
"The one who is able to do this, let him do it."
That is if you read the Good Book in such a way that opens the tent of glory to all, instead of trying to force a narrowly defined conservative view of the Bible on us all. Who is Mike Huckabee or Ted Cruz to define what the "orthodox" view is.
How dare they say, like the Church before Reformation, only they can define God's will and intent. Most importantly, how dare they say their interpretation of a religious text overrides the natural rights of their fellow citizens.
Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion. While natural law in the USA was heavily influenced by the moral compass of Christians, at the end of the day they went with a social contract based on rule of law, not a kingdom based on divine right or a theocracy based on religious edicts.
So not only is Huckabee's tidbit a slap in the face of any Christian who does not believe as he does, for we are not "True" or "Orthodox" Protestants or Christians, it is a square slap to the face of many Founding Fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, who kept a Koran around for this very reason.
And you Mike Huckabee, are no Thomas Jefferson.
Oh, I forgot to mention, in fairness, everything Jesus did have to say about homosexuality in the Bible:
Again, how dare you.