Is the bible used to justify prejudice?

[marco]

People have their prejudices but what a blessing it must be if the bible encourages them. Jews killed Christ - let us hate Jews. Suffer not a witch to live - let us kill witches. If man lies down with another man, let them both perish - let us kill gays!

If we read enough into what is written biblically I suppose we can find a justification of any prejudice. There's a good passage that justifies hurting people, even family members, by shunning them. Matthew 10:14 tells us: "And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet." So if you have your own religious views and somebody doesn't agree, then God tells you to shun them. What a bonus!

Does the bible pander to prejudice?
How can we tell that biblical interpretation is not just a reflection of our own hates and prejudices?

[marco]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

I've been watching documentary films on the grotesque treatment of gay people in America. Of course in other places they are thrown from high buildings. It seems that the hatred comes first, then biblical passages excuse that hatred. When we see difference as a threat we lose our humanity. We might even generate genocide.

There are beautiful passages in the mixed blessing that is the Christian bible, but there are shameful parts too. When people in the 21st century put on the clothes of people from the ancient past, we lose our civilisation.

[Divine Insight]

Does the bible pander to prejudice?

I say that it does far more than just pander to prejudice. It actually teaches it and incites it.

How can we tell that biblical interpretation is not just a reflection of our own hates and prejudices?

For me, that revelation was actually quite easy. As a Christian who saw Christ as a loving forgiving character, I used to argue for a loving forgiving Christ. And I wasn't arguing with non-believers, but instead I was arguing with other Christians who held Christ up as supporting their hateful bigotry.

I learned very quickly that the Bible contains contradictory verses attributed to Jesus that can be used as arguments for either side. I would point to verses that supporting a loving forgiving seemingly sane and rational Jesus, while they would point to the most hateful, insane and unreasonable passages attributed to Jesus.

So yes, I quickly discovered that the Bible can be used to support just about any position a person chooses to use it to support.

I quickly realized that we could easily create a puppet show with two marionette dolls of Jesus and have them arguing against each other using nothing more than passages from the New Testament that have been attributed to Jesus.

It quickly became like the TV Show "To Tell the Truth" Will the real Jesus please stand up? The Gospel rumors appear to have multiple Jesus characters.

Add a their marionette doll representing Yahweh and you'd have enough disagreements between the two Jesus dolls and the Yahweh doll to produce an entire Trilogy. A Trilogy of the disagreeing Trinity.

So yes. It's clear to me that the Bible can be used to support just about any position anyone would like to take.

If you want Jesus to support your views you need to be careful which verses you choose.

And if you like a hateful Jesus there's plenty of verses to support that as well.

This was an early indication to me why the Bible cannot be true. I used to argue with Christians over the character and teachings of Jesus. Ironically most Christians I argued with hated the idea of a loving forgiving Jesus. They seemed to much prefer a Jesus who is anxious to cast anyone into hell for the slightest reason.

Why they prefer a hateful Jesus I'll never know.

Of course this isn't true of ALL Christians. But the problem is that it is true that the Bible can easily be used to support such hatred and intolerance in Jesus' name. That's the problem. It's not the Christians who make the Bible so meaningless. It's the Bible that makes itself meaningless by containing support for hatred and bigotry.

[JehovahsWitness]

Is the bible used to justify prejudice?

Yes, certainly. Human nature seems capable of twisting anything (atheism, nationalism, belief in evolution... ) to justify malicious aims with or without a valid basis. Sadly the bible is no exception, which is tragic as it doesn't support prejudice of any kind.


JW

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 4 by JehovahsWitness]

PREJUDICE

1: injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one's rights
especially : detriment to one's legal rights or claim

JOB 34:19
There is One who does not show partiality to princes. And who does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands

ACTS 10: 34-36

At this Peter began to speak, and he said: “Now I truly understand that God is not partial, but in every nation the man who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him

JAMES 2:9
if you continue showing favoritism, you are committing sin

2a
(1): preconceived judgment or opinion

(2): an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge
b: an instance of such judgment or opinion
source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prejudice

1 THESS 5:15
See that no one repays injury for injury to anyone, but always pursue what is good toward one another and to all others

ROMANS 12:17
Take into consideration what is fine from the viewpoint of all men

2.
c: an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics
source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prejudice

MATTHEW 7:12
All things, therefore, that you want men to do to you, you also must do to them.+ This, in fact, is what the Law and the Prophets mean.

LEVITICUS 19:17
“‘You must not hate your brother in your heart.[ ...] and you must love your fellow man as yourself. I am Jehovah.

LUKE 10: 29, 37,
But wanting to prove himself righteous, the man said to Jesus: “Who really is my neighbor? In reply Jesus said: [... ] Who of these three seems to you to have made himself neighbor to the man who fell victim to the robbers?He [The questioner] said: “The one who acted mercifully toward him. Jesus then said to him: “Go and do the same yourself

FURTHER READING Prejudice and Discrimination ”Getting to the Roots
https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines ... the-Roots/



RELATED POSTS

Does the bible promote prejudice?
viewtopic.php?p=995692#p995692

Does the bible support hatred?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 50#p993650

Should law and law enforcement be seen as evidence of hate or prejudice?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 84#p993684

To learn more please go to other posts related to...

PREJUDICE , HATE and ...RACISM

JEHOVAHS WITNESS

[Divine Insight]

Sadly the bible is no exception, which is tragic as it doesn't support prejudice of any kind.

That's nonsense. All you've done is cherry pick verses that you like. Someone who wants to hate on people can just as easily pick verses that support their hatred.

The OP already gave some examples.

Also how can you deny that the Bible doesn't preach extreme religious bigotry?

From Deuteronomy:

12 The Lord your God is giving you towns to live in. But suppose you hear something bad about one of those towns. 13 You hear that people who cause trouble have appeared among you. They’ve tried to get the people of their town to do something wrong. They’ve said, “Let’s go and worship other gods.� But you haven’t known anything about those gods before. 14 So you must ask people some questions. You must check out the matter carefully. If it’s true, an evil thing has really happened among you. It’s something the Lord hates. 15 Then you must certainly kill with your swords everyone who lives in that town. You must destroy it completely. You must wipe out its people and livestock. 16 You must gather all the goods of that town into the middle of the main street. You must burn the town completely. You must burn up everything in it. It’s a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. The town must remain a pile of stones forever. It must never be built again. 17 Don’t keep anything that should be destroyed. Then the Lord will turn away from his great anger. He will show you mercy. He’ll have deep concern for you. He’ll cause there to be many of you. That’s what he promised your people of long ago. He gave his word when he made the promise. 18 The Lord your God will do those things if you obey him. I’m giving you his commands today. And you must obey all of them. You must do what is right in his eyes.

The Bible is telling you to kill people who worship other gods.

Your claim that the Bible doesn't support prejudice of any kind is clearly false.

How can you make such obviously false claims? You can't change what has been written thousands of years ago. But you can confess what it actually has to say.

Why not confess to the truth? Why pretend that the Bible doesn't preach religious bigotry and hatred when it's right there in print?

Why do theists insist on denying the truth? Are they really that ashamed of their own religion?

[JehovahsWitness]

Your claim that the Bible doesn't support prejudice of any kind is clearly false.

No it is not, the passage presented doesnt fit the definition of "prejudice" at all.

PREJUDICE

1: injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one's rights
2a(1): preconceived judgment or opinion
(2): an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge
b: an instance of such judgment or opinion
c: an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics

JW

[JehovahsWitness]

Also how can you deny that the Bible doesn't preach extreme religious bigotry?

Is it bigotry to be intolerant of crime or wrongdoing?



RELATED POSTS

Does the bible support hatred?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 50#p993650

Should law and law enforcement be seen as evidence of hate or prejudice?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 84#p993684

[Divine Insight]

Is it bigotry to be intolerant of crime or wrongdoing?

It is if you are the one defining what constitutes "crime" and the crime is that anyone who doesn't worship your God or religion should be executed.

I'm willing to bet that if another religion was killing off Jehovah's Witnesses for preaching of a God other than theirs, you'd be claiming that they are committing a "crime".

You're trying to defend the indefensible. Your religious Holy Book teaches people to not only be religious bigots, but it even commands them to kill in the name of religious bigotry.

By the way, your "RELATED POSTS" only reinforce the religious bigotry of your religion because your religion assumes that it's a "sin" to worship any other God then yours.

[JehovahsWitness]

Is it bigotry to be intolerant of crime or wrongdoing?

It is if you are the one defining what constitutes "crime" ...

And under what circumstances is it not bigotry to be intolerant of crime or wrongdoing?