Can a Bible be a national security threat?

It can be if it’s the Holman Bible, says Mikey Weinstein.

And thanks, DickG., for the link.

Jesus was a radical economist

Remember the Rev. Howard Bess? The Baptist minister clashed with former Alaska governor/former vice presidential candidate/current gadabout Sarah Palin over abortion and gay rights, says about Jesus:

Jesus made his reputation as a Jewish economist, one with very strong opinions about wealth and property, about the relationship between the rich and the poor.

He also was intensely religious and loved nothing more than debating the meaning of the law of God or Torah. For instance, he is presented in the Gospel of Luke as being a precocious 12-year-old boy absorbed in debating religious leaders about the meaning of Torah.

And thanks, Cynical, for the link.

Underemployment v. unemployment in one handy picture

Is the Bible a valuable moral guide (religous or not)?

Some say yes.

Some say maybe.

I say yes — with a long list of caveats. You?

And thanks, DickG., for the link.

Democrats = Pontius Pilate?

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) needs to read his Bible more closely. Rep. King, stumping online, compared Democrats to Pontius Pilate. For those of you who don’t consult your Bible, Pilate was the Roman governor who authorized Jesus’ crucifixion (though this source has doubts about that).

Even if I unhinge my brain, I am not following Rep. King’s logic. He quotes Dueteronomy to show that the Bible is “very clear” on the subject of borders, but here — as with the discussion about marriage equality — he doesn’t go much into context. For example, how would we (literally, as that appears to be Rep. King’s wont) apply verse 9-14, a discussion of the special care that God extended toward Jacob. Are we to expect honey from the rock, too? Because I would really like that. And herein we see the danger of a speech-writer doing a search on “boundary” and using whatever s/he finds there as scriptural backing.

But that’s just lil’ ol’ me talking. Mostly, Rep. King seemed appalled that lefties read the Bible, too. We do, Rep. King. Fear us.

And thanks, Sis. Cynical, for the link.

Are Tea Party premises based on scriptures?

Discuss.

Jesus, the hippie-madman

Nathan Schneider, an adult convert to Roman Catholicism, has a beautiful essay at Killing the Buddha.

I’ve said this before, but the Jesus I met as a girl resembles very little the Jesus I met as an adult. I like adult Jesus better.

Bibles to Beck!

Serene Jones, president of the faculty at Union Theological Seminary, is sending Bibles to Glenn Beck, who is no fan of liberation theology, or Biblically-based social justice.

She’s thoughtfully marked the pertinent passages, too.

How do you define “abomination?”

Be careful, when referring to the Book of Leviticus’s use of it, says Jay Michaelson, at Religion Dispatches. “Abomination” may well be a mistranslation.

Yet another example of the problem with literalism

Sis. Kick sends this, a quote from an ancestor (mine, not hers):

There is not one verse in the Bible inhibiting slavery, but many regulating it. It is not then, we conclude, immoral.

That’s from Alexander Campbell, bless his heart, though the source called him “Rev. Alexander Campbell,” which is inaccurate because c of Cers don’t use honorific titles like “Rev.” But oh-well.