It should also be clear from the many articles posted on this blog that the church responsible for this site holds to the belief that the Bible is the literal word of God, as the Bible itself claims to be, and as most editors of modern translations such as the NIV, the NAS, and the NKJ believe. I would also like to point out that the scholars who translate the American Standard, King James, NAS, NKJ, and NIV you find at the bookstore have access to more original documentation and more linguistic expertise than me and Dr. Kurtin combined. It never fails to amuse me when Bible detractors continue to throw out arguments concerning the difficulty of interpreting the original languages, which are dead and thus no longer changing, when thousands of scholars seem to have no such difficulty.

It is unfortunate that while the NIV states their belief in the divine authorship of the bible in their preface, they also state that they have chosen to attempt an interpretation of the thoughts of the biblical writers rather than a literal word-for-word translation. They are not the only version to do so, and one must be alert and diligent in their studies, as some versions are more egregious in their liberal paraphrasing than others. That said, I am still confident in my ability to use the NIV to teach someone what it means to be a Christian.

Before I address some of Dr. Kurtin’s conclusion concerning the scriptures, I would like to question her continued reference to the percentage of homosexuals in the general population. A quick Google search of “us census homosexual population” returned a wide array of sites with varying information, but what most of them agreed upon was that it is extremely difficult to determine any sort of accurate percentage due to the different definitions of homosexuality (http://www.avert.org/gay-people.htm).

The “10%” figure comes from Alfred Kinsey’s study back in the 1940s and was based on an “orientation scale” that ranged from single experiences to exclusive contact. More recent studies have concluded that only 1.7% of the(American) population identify as homosexual, and 8.2% of the population have engaged in sex with a partner of the same sex at least once (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/07/gay-population-us-estimate_n_846348.html) .

It’s clear that Dr. Kurtin does not believe in the divine authority and authorship of the Bible, so I debated with myself about the value of refuting her conclusions concerning the scriptures. However, in the interest of future readers, I decided it necessary to provide an opposing position. First, just because something was addressed in the Mosaic law to the nation of Israel does not mean that there isn’t application or a corollary law in the Christian covenant. Paul told the Galatian church that the law (of Israel) was a tutor meant to help prepare those under it for the law of faith (Gal 3:23-25). And even though we are no longer under that law, Paul told the Corinthian church to look to the Old Testament writings because what happened to Israel was an example they were to use as instruction (1 Cor 10: 1-12).

The character of God has not changed (James 1:17), and the Old Testament provides us with a clear picture of that character. What He considered an abomination then, He does now. The difference between now and then is that God has brought His promise of forgiveness and reconciliation to fruition through the death of His Son, and because He has done so, there is no more need for the former covenant. (Not to mention that the covenant was only with Israel, and they were in breach of contract time and time again.)

This is on top of the fact that the New Testament also teaches that acts of homosexuality are a sin and an abomination to God. Jesus defines marriage as a relationship between man and woman in Matt 19:4-5, reaffirming God’s stance on proper sexual relations while correcting the Pharisee’s perversion of the Mosiac law concerning divorce. Dr. Kurtin pointed out another instance where the New Testament states the practice of homosexuality as sinful.

And that brings me to my final point. Sin is an act. The purpose of law is to point out when our actions transgress God’s will. Everyone has tendencies they were born with or develop over time. Those tendencies are not sin. They tempt us, but it is only when we act on them that we have committed sin. That is the choice we make, and where our guilt begins, whether the choice is to lie, steal, murder, or have sex out of wedlock or with someone of the same sex.

I will be closing the comments on this post to prevent it from straying further off topic. If you have any more questions about the bible related to this topic or any other, I encourage you to use the email address provided at the end of the article.

The problem with 99% of people is that they think they can read the bible literally. They can not. It is IMPOSSIBLE! Even if you know the original languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek (Jesus did NOT speak Greek; he spoke Aramaic).

Words change their meaning, so the KJV is the most HORRIBLE version someone in the 21st century. It is filled with errors, both on purpose and by accident because their scholarship was barbaric compared to today. I read either the Tenach (Torah, Prophets and Writings) or when I have to look into what is called the “New” Testament, I use the NIV. Excellent scholarship and pretty close to the Greek.

YOU MUST KNOW WHO IS BEING ADDRESSED, AT WHAT TIME PERIOD IT WAS ADDRESSED AND WHY IT IS BEING ADDRESSED. READING IT AS THOUGH IT WAS A WORD FOR WORD TRANSLATION OF GOD’S WORDS IS IMBECILIC.

In the Torah, the nascent Jewish nation is being addressed. The time was after they had left Egypt and were heading toward the promised land.

In both Egypt and Cannan, fertility rites were practiced and as part of those rites heterosexual men and women acted as though they were homosexual. THAT is what God called an abomination. He was not talking about people who WERE homosexuals, but the actions of people during the fertility rites.

Christians are, as I’ve mentioned before, quick to damn homosexuality but NOT the other things that are called an abomination. Eating shell fish is an abomination, so why aren’t Christians beating up those people who consume lobster, crabs, oysters, clams, etc? Because they simply do not know or WANT to know that nowhere has God said that homosexuality is wrong or an “Abomination” the way they read it.

It is an indisputable FACT that ten percent of all human beings are homosexual. It is not a “life style.” It is how they were born. No human being would wake up one day and say, “I want to be scorned by society, I want my parents to throw me out of the house, I want my friends to abandon me…nobody would ever do that. They DO wake up one day and look at someone of their own sex and suddenly realize that they are attracted to that person.

It usually is a shock to them to realize that they are gay. You and I have no idea of what it is like for a normal human being to realize that his or her life is about to change for the worse and that there is NOTHING they can do to change things.

Being born straight, as I was, the thought of being with another woman is repulsive to me; I like men. But after being hit ONCE by the two men to whom I have been married, I divorced and will never marry again. I hold a doctorate in computer science. Neither of my husbands were as academically gifted as I was. That angered them and they lashed out. Too bad for them as I always earned much more than they did.

But one day I thought that boys had cooties , the next day, some of them were cute as the dickens. I did NOT make that choice, it had been made for me when I was still gestating in my mother’s womb. Is being straight a “life style?” Hell no. Neither is being gay.

Although I, as Mr. Foster above, try not to judge others. Perfect I am not. Accuracy is my mistake, I do not make mottoes.

That extends to the LGBT community. I cannot walk in their shoes, I cannot examine their minds. And neither can anyone else.

Many Christian preachers who have railed against LGBT people are just closet gays; many of them eventually spill the beans on themselves. But, worse, they are so hate filled that their hate pushes out any trace of love. They are anti-Christians.

BTW, the so-called “lower animals” are ALSO homosexual, bisexual and transgendered. That is not an opinion, it is fact and if you still want to be hate filled, so be it; but please stop lying to yourself or others that you are a Christian. Jesus accepted people for who they were; if HE didn’t judge people, who are YOU to do so? I do not believe that he is God, but if you do, then you are saying by your bigotry that YOU are better than God himself and I guarantee, you are not.

In Torah, eating shrimp, oysters, lobsters, any shell fish is an “abomination,” as is eating pork, incest, you name it, it is an “abomination.”

In Romans 1, Paul has a list of things that are abominations:

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (2008). Holy Bible (NIV)

There is a list of 21 other things that are abominations and are deserving of death, just as homosexuality is deserving of death. WHY ARE THE OTHER TWENTY-ONE IGNORED? I know many people who consider themselves wonderful Christians yet they gossip, slander, are arrogant and boastful. They are filled with avarice yet they think they’re FINE CHRISTIANS, yet Paul says they are worthy of death.

Again, I am a heterosexual. One day boys were yuckie and had cooties and the next day some of them were really cute! I did not make a decision to like boys; I just did, it was like someone had flipped a switch and the light came on.

As a retired crisis intervention/suicide prevention counselor, I have spoken with many homosexuals who, when the switched turned on, found TO THEIR HORROR that they were attracted to members of their own sex. Many potential suicides were prevented by young people who were so afraid of what had happened to them that rather than “come out,” they wanted to kill themselves. I have spoken with many young people who, when they told their “fine Christian parents,” were thrown out of their homes and were thrown out on the street to fend for themselves because they had become “abominations” while at the same time doing other things that Paul said was an abomination and worthy of death!

How can any parent just throw their children out of their lives? It is something I cannot imagine a more UNhuman thing to do or anything more detestable than to throw your own flesh and blood out of their home because they were born the way they were.

My stomach wants to retch when the hatred and bigotry of Christians rise up, aimed at a group of individuals who were born with their sexuality that differs from the majority. They actually think that a conscious decision to BECOME attracted to member of their same sex. For God’s sake, this is the year 2011, isn’t it beyond the time for Christians to become human and accept that TEN PERCENT OF HUMANITY IS HOMOSEXUAL! Ten percent. That has remained a steady number since forever.

When did YOU decide to be heterosexual? Of course, I presume you ARE a heterosexual. As disgusting as the thought of being homosexual may be to you and me, they have the exact opposite feelings. Nobody would think of deliberately becoming an outcast, or be hated by one’s own family. Just as we were born the way we are, THEY ARE BORN THE WAY THEY ARE and to pick their particular sexuality out of all of the items that are “abominations,” makes no sense to anyone with a modicum of intelligence.

One of the biggest problems I see with Christianity is that they have a tendency to take biblical texts out of context and without any concern as to who is being addressed or in what era they are being addressed. This has caused many, MANY snippets of biblical text to be twisted to take on what was meant.

Example: Jehovah’s Witnesses will not take a transfusion to save their life because of what was said in Leviticus 17. Who was being addressed? The nascent nation of Israel. What was the meaning IN CONTEXT? Very simply, no member of the nation is to eat blood and anyone living with them should not eat blood. Who do they think they are to twist that into they should not have transfusions? Eating is done with the mouth! Transfusions are taken into the veins. I had a massive hemorrhagic stroke that took 49 units of blood and plasma to stop the bleeding. If I had been a JW, I would have died.

When I was completing my doctoral dissertation, I worked at a hospital in the operating room department. When a JW was coming into labor and delivery, I would have to call a judge to get a court order to give the infant a transfusion if they required it, the mother would sometimes die, but that was their choice. What a waste of life.

The Amish believe the earth because the bible says “…from the four corners of the earth.” The word in Hebrew means “from all over,” but got mistranslated. A missionary tried to convert me by showing me “proof texts.” I roared with laughter! Isiah 53 is talking about the “suffering servant,” not Jesus the Christ. All one has to do is go back over to the last few verses in the previous chapter to discover that it is the Suffering Servant Israel and that is and always has been the Jewish nation. In Leviticus 17:11, he tried to convince me that a blood sacrifice was necessary for the forgiveness of sin. No it is not; repentance is all it takes. Look at Johah, the people to whom he was sent repented and did no sacrifices. But even flour was an acceptable sacrifice for UNINTENDED SIN. There was no sacrifice for deliberate sinning; repentance was required, not blood.

I could continue for 50 more pages, but will stop here. My main point is that Christians among others, say that God hates homosexuals while ignoring all of the other items that were called “abominations.”

I’ll close with this challenge: Go to the place in what you call the old testament and find the place where homosexuality is spoken of. To whom did God speak, under what circumstances, at what time and for what purpose? Warning! You MUST