brainfreezy
New member
But Christians still have the benefit of bacon, so it's not all bad!
In half seriousness, I don't think there can be peace in the middle-east until all parties (us too) can sit down to an old-fashioned southern BBQ.
In full seriousness, MrFarFromRight - I would suggest that you read through Divine Sex. I'm on chapter 6 now, and by this point most of my sticking points with polyamory and the Bible have been either completely dissolved or turned on their ear. Best recommended book on both the faith and poly fronts for me personally (thanks for the hard sell LR!). Ultimately, no one is going to heal your faith but you and God together. Of course, you've rejected a lot of secondhand corruption and become skeptical, which isn't a bad thing - so long as you keep digging! We'll never know Christ's precise feelings on any particular topic, and we all tend to project our values onto Him when we try to reconcile things He didn't talk about.
Speaking of which, what may help your sticking points is to get a red-letter edition Bible, where the words of Christ Himself are highlighted. Also what may interest you are the books by the Jesus Seminar (IRRC). They are a group of theologians, professors, historians, linguists, scientists (real scientists), and others that debate original source texts (both Canon and non-Canonical if I recall). They go line by line and using the best original texts available they hash out everything Jesus said and attribute an accuracy to it. For example, if certain expressions came about in the second and third centuries, it is highly unlikely that Jesus said them, or at least *in that way*. I found them to be quite illustrative of just what He said in the vernacular of the day, and what was remembered 4-5-6 generations later. It really helps resolve the context conflicts that you, Magdlyn, LR, and others have pointed out.
Of course Christianity is about an individual's walk with Christ, not with His church (small-c). Without studying we are left with the interpretations of others. The only person that can tell you what Christ means to you is you. I think it is vague in some parts on purpose. Be it man-made or inspired, it is all we have to work with.