{"id":37,"date":"2013-02-10T18:17:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-10T18:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beckypalmer.thecomputerguy.bz\/2013\/02\/im-confused\/"},"modified":"2015-11-10T03:50:55","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T03:50:55","slug":"im-confused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/?p=37","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;m confused"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Today I&#8217;m asking for help. \u00a0Specifically I&#8217;m asking for help from my friends who are deeply religious. \u00a0Most of you will be Christians, but I&#8217;m quoting from the Old Testament, a book also revered by Jews and Muslims, so please feel free to comment if you are of either of those beliefs as well. \u00a0Yes, I know I&#8217;m leaving some of you on the curb on this one. \u00a0Sorry.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nI&#8217;vee said it before and I&#8217;ll say it again- I am in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. For me it&#8217;s not a religious issue at all- it&#8217;s about everyone having equal rights under the law which is supposed to be what the USA is all about. \u00a0However, I know this IS a religious issue for many others- including people I care deeply about- and that&#8217;s why I&#8217;m asking these questions today.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nLeviticus 18 verse 22 says &#8220;<span style=\"background-color: white;\">Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman;<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\">\u00a0that is detestable&#8221;. \u00a0This verse<\/span>\u00a0is commonly quoted by people who are against legalizing same-sex marriage. But here s where I struggle with that- there are a lot of other things in Leviticus- even Leviticus 18!- that no ones quotes or lives by today. \u00a0Here are just a few examples:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nLev 18 verse 19:\u00a0<span style=\"background-color: white;\">Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\">\u00a0of her monthly period.<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<span style=\"background-color: white;\">Lev 19 verse 19:\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\">Do not mate different kinds of animals\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\">Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\">Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nLev 17 verse 13:\u00a0<span style=\"background-color: white;\">Anyone among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth.<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nHere are a couple from Deuteronomy as well:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<span style=\"background-color: white;\"><sup style=\"vertical-align: top;\">Det 22, verses 28- 29: \u00a0<\/sup>If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\"><sup style=\"vertical-align: top;\">\u00a0<\/sup>he shall pay her father fifty shekels\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\">of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\n<span style=\"background-color: white;\">Det 22, verses 23-24:\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\"><sup style=\"vertical-align: top;\">\u00a0<\/sup>If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\"><sup style=\"vertical-align: top;\">\u00a0<\/sup>you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death\u2014the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man\u2019s wife.<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nI don&#8217;t think anyone with even half a brain thinks forcing a rapist to marry his victim is a good idea. \u00a0I&#8217;ve never seen anyone protesting t shirts that are a 50-50 blend of cotton and polyester. I&#8217;ve never heard a sermon condemning couples choosing to make love during &#8220;that time of the month&#8221;. \u00a0But this is exactly where it gets me- if we have decided as religious law that Leviticus 18 verse 19 doesn&#8217;t apply to us in the year 2013, then why does Leviticus 18 verse 22?\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><br \/>\nThis is a serious question that has been bothering me for quite a while now and I am hoping and praying for serious answers.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\">Thank you.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"background-color: white;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white;\">All Bible verses are quoted from the NIV translation of the Holy Bible.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today I&#8217;m asking for help. \u00a0Specifically I&#8217;m asking for help from my friends who are deeply religious. \u00a0Most of you will be Christians, but I&#8217;m quoting from the Old Testament, a book also revered by Jews and Muslims, so please feel free to comment if you are of either of those beliefs as well. \u00a0Yes, I know I&#8217;m leaving some&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/?p=37\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-issues"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}