Friday, April 19, 2019

ANS -- Why Many Evangelicals Find Donald Trump Simply Irresistible and another article

This is two articles, one of them was linked to in the other.  Apparently what the bible says about abortion is that it's okay if it's a case of adultery.  that's the second article, the first is about how much Trump is like Yahweh in the old testament. I found it more amusing than serious.  Again, if you are not interested in religion, this may not be your thing.  the second article has some serious discussion after it, but you have to go there to see it.  

--Kim



Why Many Evangelicals Find Donald Trump Simply Irresistible

God TrumpIs it Trump's god-complex or God's Trump-complex?  Either way Trump and Jehovah have an awful lot in common.

People have been scratching their heads about how so many "family values" American voters who claim to love Jesus can follow Donald Trump. What ever happened to love thy neighbor, and if you have two coats give one to the poor, and turn the other cheek, and feed my lambs, and the meek shall inherit the Earth?  Some horrified Christian leaders have gone so far as to say a person can't be a Christian and a Trump supporter.

Of course times are hard and, in fairness, fear and downward mobility do weird things to people, including Christians. And some folks, whether Christian or not, are congenitally horrid. But shouldn't Bible belief inoculate earnest believers against someone who seems like the polar opposite of Jesus?

Perhaps the problem is that Trump is a lot like a different Bible character—one who also is the polar opposite of Jesus in many ways, but who young believers are nevertheless taught to worship and praise. I'm talking about the character of Jehovah; Yahweh as some people call him; The Great I Am; the LORD God of the Old Testament who makes it into the New Testament as both the father of Jesus and his alter-ego, and later into the Quran.

One way that biblical literalism screws with people's heads is this: Children are taught from a young age that God is perfect—the essence of Love and Truth. But when you look a little closer at the stories in the Bible, it turns out that he's an awful lot like Trump.

He is powerful, and He wants us all to know it.  Isaiah 45 is just one of many egomaniacal diatribes about God's unparalleled power and contempt for humanity, as if the force that created the DNA code and supernovas would need to brag and posture and lord it over lowly bipedal primates. It contains the word "I" 22 times, as in:

"I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know—from the rising of the sun and from the west—that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.  I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things . . .  To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. . . " (Isaiah 45:5-7 KJV).

Me, me, me, I, I, I, I, I.

He's an insatiable attention seeker.  From Genesis through Revelation, the Bible lays out precisely how people should grovel and sing God's praises and otherwise kiss up. God wants his adoring followers to beg for things that he already knows they need. He loves the smell of burnt offerings and dictates just what should be burnt and when. He demands proof of loyalty, like cutting off the cover of your penis, or whacking relatives who don't think he's awesome, or being willing to turn your child into a human sacrifice.

And he doesn't like it at all if anyone pays attention to competing deities. "Thou shalt worship no other god!" he roars, "For the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God!"

He issues two sets of 10 Commandments, one of which contains nothing but details of how to pay him homage. The other, better known, set includes some basic, universal ethical principles—but even there, four out of ten are about giving the Big Man the kind of exclusive adoration he wants. That's why there was no room for Wash your hands after you go to the bathroom. Or Don't have sex with anyone who doesn't want to. Or Treat other living beings like they want to be treated. Or Thou shalt not own other human beings. Imagine our world if Jehovah had been a little less concerned with attention and a little more concerned with compassion and sanitation.

He's mean.  The internet abounds with articles, sermons and videos assuring us that the Bible-god isn't really the embodiment of mean people suck. But what exactly would you call sending a bear to tear apart 42 boys who tease a prophet? Or how about slaughtering a son in each Egyptian peasant family then and blaming the mass murder on their unelected ruler who is actually your puppet: "The Lord said to Moses, 'Pharaoh will not listen to you, in order that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.' Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land." (Exodus 11:9).

Or let's go back to the very first Bible story. What would you call putting a tantalizing fruit tree in front of two naïve and inexperienced creatures you've just made out of dirt and then punishing them brutally when they eat from it? (Genesis 2-3). Not long ago, an Alabama pastor wanted to teach a lesson about Christian obedience so he starved his chained-up dogfor two days and then put food in reach but told the dog not to eat.

Yeah, sadistic. Sometimes Christians reveal a little more than intended about the deity they worship.

He's racist and ablest. God may claim credit for making us all, but that doesn't prevent him from picking favorites or finding some people repugnant simply by accident of birth. The Old Testament narratives are about favored blood lines of Hebrews—who get the right to claim land already occupied by other ethnic groups. According to God's rules, even slaves must be treated better if they are Hebrew slaves.

But being Hebrew won't help if you're handicapped. Jehovah, like Trump thinks that arthrogryposis is just gross. Stay away! "No one of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the food of his God.  For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, one who is blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or one who has a broken foot or a broken hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a blemish in his eyes or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles." (Leviticus 21:17-21)

He demeans women. If a guy with crushed balls might contaminate Jehovah's inner sanctum, a menstruating woman would be far worse. Whatever you do, don't let Megyn Kelly sit on the furniture! And by the way, a woman who gives birth to a girl baby is nasty for twice as long as one who gives birth to a boy. But don't get too insulted. Women can be saved through childbearing.

Donald Trump may treat women like trophies, but Jehovah literally defines women as economic assets belonging to men—just like slaves, children, and cattle, which is where the word chattel comes from. He actually sets up formal guidelines for sexual slavery. As chattel, a female who voluntarily gives up her virginity (thus reducing her economic value) can be stoned, but a rapist must simply buy the damaged goods. If a man suspects his wife of infidelity (again reducing her ability to produce purebred offspring of known origin), he can forcibly give her an abortion potion. Never say Jehovah is anything less than a bro. (See also Fifteen Bible Texts Reveal Why God's Own Party Keeps Degrading Women. Or, don't take it from me, take it from Christian leaders themselves: Twenty Vile Quotes Against Women By Church Leaders from St. Augustine to Pat Robertson.)

He's bellicose and vindictive. Lists of Jehovah's enemies and stories about how he ruins their lives or plans to ruin their afterlife occupy much of the Bible. First there's Satan and all of those uppity angels who have apparently gotten tired of acting like everlasting groupies. Then come giants and people who build the Tower of Babel, which threatens to break through to God's home above the sky.

Then comes everybody but Noah and his ark-building sons, and then the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Midianites and Amalekites and the Philistines (other Semitic tribes), and the Assyrians and Babylonians, and a long litany of foreign kings and queens like Nebuchadnezzar and Jezebel. And let's not forget all of the traitors among his Chosen People, who—despite constant displays of divine temper and butchery—never seem to grasp how badly Jehovah will burn them if they fall down on sucking up. Unable to threaten lawsuits like Trump can now, Jehovah instead threatens all who displease him with eternal torture.

His statements contradict facts and each other.  Unless the Bible writers got things garbled, Jehovah's claims are wildly contradictory. Jehovah says he created evil, and also says he can't look on it. He shows up, then says no-one has ever seen him (Exodus 33:11/John 1:18). He tempts people to do bad things, then denies having ever done so. (Genesis 22:1/James 1:13). He declares himself unchanging but changes his mind at will (Exodus 32:14/Psalm 105:25-27). He apparently can't remember if he created animals before humans or vice versa so boldly tells the story both ways (Genesis 1 & 2).

Add to the contradictions a surreal layer of ignorance.

Jehovah's official biography is full of scientific hogwash. He creates day and night before the sun. He makes the sun stand still as a favor to some Iron Age fans—meaning he somehow stops the earth's rotation without everything flying off the planet. He covers Mt. Everest in a flood that then dries up. He assumes that pi equals three. He predicts that a star will fall to earth. He warns against eating four-legged insects (which don't exist). In sum, despite his claim to have created the world, he doesn't have a freaking clue how it works.

But that's ok, because all that really matters is . . .

He's wildly rich, and he promises to make you rich too if you follow him. Jehovah's version of heaven, which sounds rather hellish if you actually think about it for more than five seconds, perfectly sums up Jehovah as the protagonist of his own story. It's a place of conspicuous opulence with streets of gold and gem encrusted walls where everyone gets their own mansion. But these trappings of wealth are on offer only to those who are willing to spend a literal eternity standing around singing about what an awesome god he is. This, according to many Christians, is the pinnacle of human existence. And if you don't find that appealing—it's outer darkness for you, Baby. Wailing and gnashing of teeth.

You can see why someone primed on Jehovah might admire a bully with an almost limitless sense of his own importance, one who demands constant admiration, has an enemy list a mile long, and shows a perverse lack of empathy for those he perceives as lesser beings. These classic characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder, are the reason we often refer to a narcissist as someone with a god-complex. Most of humanity's gods are assholes, and the Bible-god is no exception.

Biologist Richard Dawkins once summed up Jehovah in a sentence: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

Christianity may make the head-spinning claim that Jehovah is a stand-up guy, goodness incarnate, and worthy to be worshiped by all of humanity, but he makes Donald Trump look morally intact. To the best of my knowledge Trump has no history of infanticide, genocide, filicide, or ethnic cleansing. Despite his God complex, Trump is a pale shadow of the Great I Am.

Even so, from an electoral standpoint, Trump's likeness to Jehovah may be as valuable as his celebrity name. If Trump manages to get himself elected by Evangelicals looking for streets of gold and by old white males who think they are the Chosen People, we may all be grateful that the worst he can do is build a big wall or nuke the Middle East rather than drowning the entire planet in a flood that covers Everest.

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington. She is the author of Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light and Deas and Other Imaginings, and the founder of www.WisdomCommons.org.  Her articles about religion, reproductive health, and the role of women in society have been featured at sites including AlterNet, Salon, the Huffington Post, Grist, and Jezebel.  Subscribe at ValerieTarico.com.






On God-ordained, Abortion-inducing Magic Potions and Jealous Husbands Shaming Their Wives in the Bible

femaleinfidelity1

What can a faithful, God-fearing man do if he is jealous and suspects that his wife has been unfaithful to him?

Well, if you are an ancient Israelite and if you believe the text of the Bible, (or if you are a modern man who thinks that the Bible's laws concerning sexuality should be used to legislate issues of sexuality today), then this is what THE LORD ALMIGHTY commands that you do in Num. 5:11-31 (all verses below are from the NRSV):

Num. 5:11: The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
Num. 5:12: Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him,
Num. 5:13: if a man has had intercourse with her but it is hidden from her husband, so that she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her since she was not caught in the act;
Num. 5:14: if a spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself; or if a spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself;

So basically, if a husband even suspects or, in a paranoid, jealous craze thinks that his wife has been unfaithful to him…even if she has not "defiled herself", the jealous husband can take action against his wife. And once you read what that action is, you'll be shocked.

Num. 5:15: then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. And he shall bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
Num. 5:16: Then the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD;
Num. 5:17: the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.

So the woman is ordered to sit before the priest, and the priest begins creating a potion, of which one of the ingredients is the dust of the floor of the desert tabernacle.

Thus, so far, if you're a woman, and your husband thinks you've cheated on him, you're going to have to drink some dirty floor water. I wonder what else goes into this lovely potion?

Num. 5:18: The priest shall set the woman before the LORD, dishevel the woman's hair,

So take that! The priest messes up your hair. And why? Because your jealous husband is accusing you of being a slut and you are to be shamed even if you are not guilty. But wait, it gets worse. Let's see what the LORD GOD instructs Israel to do next in this trial.

Num. 5:18 con't: and place in her hands the grain offering of remembrance, which is the grain offering of jealousy. In his own hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse.

I'm guessing the "water of bitterness that brings the curse" is bitter because of all the foot-trampled dust in the bowl of water she's about to drink.

But if you're wondering, "Hey, I thought you said there was some magical element to this process", this is where it gets weird.

Num. 5:19: Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, "If no man has lain with you, if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while under your husband's authority, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings the curse.
Num. 5:20: But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has had intercourse with you,"
Num. 5:21: —let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse and say to the woman—"the LORD make you an execration and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your uterus drop, your womb discharge;

Delightful. If you've cheated, drinking this dirt water will make you miscarry. That's what it says. And why? Because to God every life matters, even the unborn in the womb, who were conceived through means that were less than ideal? God loves every unborn child??

No. At least that's not what the text says. Read it.

God wants the woman who had been suspected of cheating by her jealous husband to drink a bowl of holy water that contains dust from the floor of the tabernacle, and if she's guilty, that is, she cheated and is now pregnant, drinking the magic dirt potion and pronouncing the curse will cause her to abort the child! This is what GOD IS INSTRUCTING: that the suspected unfaithful woman orally consume a concoction that will induce an abortion if she is pregnant.

Tell me again how much God hates abortion. Here, he's giving the recipe for a drink that induces one.

But wait, there's more…

Num. 5:22: now may this water that brings the curse enter your bowels and make your womb discharge, your uterus drop!" And the woman shall say, "Amen. Amen."
Num. 5:23 Then the priest shall put these curses in writing, and wash them off into the water of bitterness.

Now we're dealing with straight up magic! SYMPATHETIC MAGIC! Apparently, it wasn't enough to pronounce the curse over the bitter potion. God instructs the priest to write down the miscarriage curse, and then WASH IT INTO THE WATER. We are dealing here with the vestiges of sympathetic magic. The priest has to write down the curse, and then brush it into the drink to be consumed, as if just saying a prayer aloud over your meal is enough. Why not write down the grace you say before your meal and sprinkle it on your salad?

This is sympathetic magic, just like the Egyptian execration texts (which, btw, contain the earliest mention of Jerusalem) that are motivated by the belief in the numinous power of writing. The writing activates the magic potion that causes the woman to abort if she is guilty.

The accused woman (remember, she has not been found guilty, this is her TRIAL!) has to drink dirt water containing the remains of ink that was used to write an magic abortion curse. And IF she drinks this bitter water, and IF she's cheated, the magic potion will cause her to spontaneously abort the child. Again, tell me how much God loves the unborn (even in cases of rape, incest, and adultery) and hates abortion. Here, God is mandating–this is God's instruction to all Israel–mandating that a woman drink a magic potion that will bring about an abortion if she is pregnant.

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And before you start criticizing this interpretation because it doesn't fit with what you already believe, note that God's view of the unborn in Num. 5 is consistent with the Bible's other teachings about unborn and even newborn children.

For instance, in Exod. 21:22-23, the miscarriage of a child following an assault on its mother is not treated as a murder of a human punishable by death, but as an assault against a man's wife that is punishable by a fine paid to the woman's husband. Or, note that in Num. 3:15-16, only males one month of age and older are counted as people in the roll. Children under one month of age don't count. This is consistent with and corroborated by the equivalency prices of various aged individuals in Lev. 27:2-8, where Lev. 27:6 says that children under one month of age require no equivalency, as they do not yet count as people! Again, the biblical view concerning the unborn is consistent with the text of Num. 5, which is clearly calling for a drink to be drunk that will supposedly induce a miscarriage.

Num. 5:24: He shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her and cause bitter pain.

Again, if a husband makes an accusation against his wife, the very trial to determine whether the accusation is even true should involve the magical, ancient equivalent of a morning after pill.

Num. 5:25: The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand, and shall elevate the grain offering before the LORD and bring it to the altar;
Num. 5:26: and the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering, as its memorial portion, and turn it into smoke on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water.
Num. 5:27: When he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings the curse (ארר) shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb (בטן) shall discharge (צבה), her uterus (ירך) drop (נפל), and the woman shall become an execration (אלה, or "curse") among her people.
Num. 5:28: But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be immune and be able to conceive children.

Let's address some technical things here. This is ABSOLUTELY describing an abortion or chemically induced (remember, she is drinking a potion after all) spontaneous miscarriage. I don't care what "gotquestions.org" tells you, while the term ירך (yrk) in Num. 5:21 and 27 is the Hebrew word for the "upper thigh", it is also the common Hebrew euphemism for things dealing with the genitals, like in Gen 46:26, where the offspring of Jacob are referred to as the "ones going out of his thigh" (יצאי ירכו) (cf. Exod. 1:5). The same expression (יצאי ירכו) is used of Gideon in Judg. 8:30.

The same word, ירך (yrk), is also used in the incredibly awkward vow taken by Abraham's servant mentioned in Gen 24:2 and 24:9 in which Abraham tells his servant to "put your hand under my 'thigh'" (ירכי) as a fertility vow that he will only choose a wife for Abraham's son, Isaac, from among his own people and not from the Canaanites. Note that Israel (Jabob) demands the same vow of Joseph not to bury him in Egypt in Gen. 47:29. This is a very different kind of "handshake", and yet, there it is in the Bible.

Likewise, the word בטן (btn, or "belly") is a euphemism for "womb", as in Prov. 31:2, in which the "son of my womb" is expressed as בר–בטני (bar-bitni), using בטן (btn) as a clear reference to the womb. In Ecc. 11:5, בטן (btn) is used in the expression "how the breath comes to the bones in the mother's womb (בטן)", obviously referencing the breath of life that ultimately comes to a fetus at birth. In Deut. 28:4, when the text says, "Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb (בטנך)", it is not talking about that which comes forth from the stomach (in either direction), but from a woman's womb. Judg. 16:17, Ps. 22:11, Job 1:21 ("naked I came from my mother's womb (בטן)") and countless other passages make clear that בטן (btn) in Num. 5:27 is not an upset stomach or a simple tummy malady that came from drinking some expired dirty foot water, it is an explicit reference to a woman's womb.

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So the word בטן (btn) here means a womb swelling or distending (צבה) in distress (not a stomach), and because it is in parallel with the word ירך (yrk) in Num 5:27, ירך (yrk) does not simply mean "thigh" (as if "thigh dropping" made any sense at all). Rather, ירך (yrk) here is another reference to the womb, and the "dropping" or "falling" (נפל) of this womb is an unmistakable reference to a miscarriage. In this regard, the NIV (2011) translation of "miscarry" in Num. 5:21 and 5:27 gets it right.

And if the womb, or more technically, the uterus, "falls" (נפל), this can only be speaking about one thing: a potion-induced spontaneous miscarriage (i.e., abortion) to purge the unfaithful woman of the child that was not conceived by her husband.

And remember, THIS IS COMMANDED BY GOD in Num. 5. It is God's prescribed means of discerning whether or not the woman has cheated on her husband: if she has, the fetus is aborted and the wife is presumably executed following the punishment prescribed in Lev. 20:10; if she has not, nothing happens.

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The punishment for the crime is clear. Not only is the woman exposed as an adulterer and killed for her capital offense (cf. Lev. 20:10), but so too is the potential child's life terminated in the process. And this, too, is consistent with the activity of God described elsewhere in the Bible, for God is described as having no problem whatsoever with killing an innocent child because he was brought about by illicit sexual activity like adultery. In fact, this is precisely what happened in 2 Sam 12:14, when through the prophet Nathan, God tells David, who conceived a child with Bathsheba, that, "because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child that is born to you shall die." And of course, while the child is completely innocent–the product of an adulterous relationship between David and Bathsheba–GOD KILLS THE CHILD in 2 Sam. 12:18-19, despite the fact that David begged God for mercy. Thus, this ritual is a double punishment for both woman and child, which is completely consistent with the commands and actions of God throughout the Bible. And if the child from an illicit union does happen to survive, Deut. 23:2 (HB 23:3) says this child is banned from the assembly: "Those born of an illicit union shall not be admitted to the assembly of the LORD." Thus, even if they do survive birth, God's position is to ostracize these children completely from his assembly!

And yes, this passage involves sympathetic magic in the form of a potion containing a written curse. The potion of dirty water and ink is not a likely abortifacient. But the point is that they believed in the magic. They believed that imbibing the written curse would reveal the truth, and they believed this divining process to be prescribed by God himself. Whether or not it actually worked is another question. All we know is that Israelite and later Jewish women were to be subjected to this humiliating, presumably abortive process in order to prove their innocence. Again, drinking holy water with dirt in it doesn't necessarily terminate or prevent a pregnancy. It is the presence of the written curse that makes this a magic potion, again, one prescribed by God.

So ladies, if you've done nothing wrong, you get to have your hair intentionally disheveled by a priest and you get to drink dirty foot water with the ink of an abortion-inducing magic curse in it. And then, if you're innocent, you'll be immune to the magic potion, and able to return to the loving arms of your jealous husband and conceive children for him. That's if you're INNOCENT!

Num. 5:29: This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself,
Num. 5:30: or when a spirit of jealousy comes on a man and he is jealous of his wife;

Don't miss that last part. When she has cheated OR when a "spirit of jealousy" comes over the husband, she must endure the humiliating, abortion-inducing trial just to prove she's innocent.

Num. 5:30 con't: then he shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall apply this entire law to her.

And just in case you think there is some punishment for the husband for falsely accusing a wife who survives this humiliation and pain, read the last verse and think again.

Num. 5:31: The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.

Let me repeat that last verse. If the woman is INNOCENT, and her husband FALSELY ACCUSES her, read it with me: "THE MAN SHALL BE FREE FROM INIQUITY, BUT THE WOMAN SHALL BEAR HER INIQUITY." The husband pays no penalty for the false accusation. His wife, on the other hand, is humiliated, and all because he had a "spirit of jealousy".

As shameful as it is, I can think of no better summary–no better motto or slogan–for the treatment of women in antiquity (including in the Bible) than Num. 5:31:

"The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity."

Thus reads the Word of the merciful Lord (who apparently doesn't hate abortion quite as much as the right wing conservatives thinks he does).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I cannot comprehend how any woman remained in this religion. Then I think to myself, "What choice did they have? They were chattel. And this is what happened to them when they were INNOCENT!"

And let us also remember, this is the same God to whom Jesus prayed, and that Christians believe Jesus to be. So please dispense with the whole, "This isn't applicable to us Christians anymore. This doesn't count. We don't have to deal with this because the Old Testament was nailed to the cross, and we live under grace, not the law" argument, because it's the same God who sent Jesus, the same religious tradition whose God created the universe and established the very expectation of a Messiah, and the same Jesus who said in Matt. 5:18:

"For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

Christians can't claim that they can just sweep passages like these under the rug and act like they never happened or that they don't tell us something about the nature of God because he's the same God who told Moses to establish this practice. The same God who gave you Ps. 23 gave you Num. 5:11-31.

This is why we (men) must make every effort to lift up women, encourage them, promote them, and beg their forgiveness for the millennia of oppression we've imposed upon them–modern day, institutional oppression that is found in the very laws of this country that were (and many still are) rooted in the laws of this book – the same book and the same laws that some religious fundamentalists are STILL attempting to impose upon our secular government and the citizenry of this nation.

Where is NonStampCollector when you need him? This needs to be a video.

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