All over Facebook and Twitter is Newsweek's completely
incompetent article on marriage and the Bible:
First, while the Bible and Jesus say many important things about love and family, neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman. And second, as the examples above illustrate, no sensible modern person wants marriage—theirs or anyone else's —to look in its particulars anything like what the Bible describes.
Stunning incompetence and illogic like this will be ripped to shreds on both liberal and conservative blogs. Should be a fun few days of reading. But it is the kind of thing that just begs the question of why Newsweek couldn't find some scholars of marriage and the Bible to write this piece. Or at least, find someone who had read Leviticus or the Gospel of Mark.
1 comment:
I don't think it's incompetence at all. Jesus never said the EXACT words "Marriage is between one man and one woman." At the same time, its ridiculous to think that's not what he believed. However, they are still technically correct, that exact phrase that is being touted by modern Christians is not found in the Bible. Where I see the incompetence is that they imply that Christians believe it IS found in that exact language.
Furthermore, their second statement is absolutely correct, no sensible modern person wants a marriage such as that of Abraham and Sarah, or even such as Joseph and Mary. We see marriages like that in places like Iran, where the wife can be stoned for any serious enough infraction her husband accuses her of. In the story of Mary, Joseph had to marry her to keep her from being thought an adulteress, since that would have led to stoning. I completely agree that the Bible defines marriage as between one man and one woman, I am a devout Christian and have read leviticus many times, it says that to "lay in the bed of a woman with a man" is an "abomination." True. It defines homosexual acts many times as abominations. But marriage itself? They are correct in saying it is not perfectly defined. The writers of the Bible just ASSUMED that it was obvious.
Newsweek didn't make a factual error, just an insensitive and bigoted remark.
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