That's almost unfair using a Reggae master, lol.
but he talked about moral law in the song, correct?
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.32.1.04?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://www.linkedword.com/deut/21/-21/0
Deuteronomy 21
10 When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,
11 And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;
12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
13 And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.
14 And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.
I don't think this is exactly what Barrington was talking about in his music. We need to be intellectually honest about the bible. I'm not saying its all bad by any stretch of the imagination. But you have to understand moral standards being relative to the perspective of history.
DURING THAT TIME, you might think that all this was extremely pious and godly compared to the alternative. If everyone was treating women as property then people may not have had the light bulb moment to realize that women shouldn't be treated that way.
Now for me... this invalidates a truly divine intervention because in my mind, "God" would not have a view of morality limited to human history. Therefore, whatever God says is moral and righteous must always be moral and righteous. You follow? But humans... if a human was writing on God's behalf, that human would not know a higher standard than what that human, himself, could imagine. And so, if he's speaking for God and making up these words and attributing them to God, they will always betray a moral standard that is relative to that point in human history. If the same person was alive today and writing it today there is no way that they would write that God is okay with treating women as property. Believe it or not, our morality has evolved past the bible. The bible has helped. Don't mistake what I'm saying. However, the bible has only helped getting to a higher level than what they used to be at when everyone was cool with treating women as property.
You and I would never imagine sending our daughters out to be raped rather than let a male guest suffer. And I do think we need to go over that story with a fine tooth comb because I don't necessarily believe Sodom and Gomorrah were corrupt to that extent. But the writer may have had this perception and bias which then came out in the text, making it sound like these "messengers" (whether angels or human) were going to be raped. But that's not the point. The point is that the writer didn't think this was as horrible as it sounds to us.
Moses also commits genocide against his own people on the basis of belief. When we read the bible with our religious mind sort of leading the way and not thinking critically for ourselves, we find ourselves agreeing with authority. And there is evidence the human brain is somewhat wired to do this. But we thought (for me it's past tense) it was okay because those people were wrong and were offending God with their belief in idols. But why? Why should God be offended after leaving them there for 400 years while all these bad things were supposedly happening to them? Why should God's feelings be hurt over something like this in general as if God is some kind of Trump-like narcissistic child who only likes his toys when they play the same game he wants to play. We then make excuses for this child-like brat and never see him for what he is. We're so busing being judged and judging ourselves that we never stop to judge the judge. Jesus says, "judge not lest you be judged". That's a wise and true statement. But we always give God a pass as if the rules don't apply to him when in reality its the exact opposite. He's supposed to BE the rule. He's supposed to BE the example of morality that we all aspire to or what's the point? And why judge us if you're a hypocrite? Why do I need to ask for mercy from someone who would kill people simply for not being convinced by other humans that magic is real and that magic proves that they're talking to the creator of the whole damn universe?!
Because I'm not convinced by HUMANS, God's going to punish me? I don't think so. I'm not scared anymore. That's the real reason we gave God a pass just like republicans give Trump a pass. It's not because they like him. It's because they're scared; afraid for their own survival. We spent years being hostages and developing feelings for our hostage taker. We collectively got Stockholm syndrome that caused us to apologize for God's bad behavior instead of seeing that the behavior wasn't the work of a god, at all, but rather humans in god's clothing, acting like, and mimicking a relationship with God so that they could speak with god-like authority and rule over people. It's all about power. And the reality is that especially when you consolidate gods you are most likely trying to consolidate power because that's what the gods are/represent.
I don't care if people read the bible. However, I do care if people read the bible and come away from it thinking that genocide is okay and that women are servants to men. I care about that because our general sense of morality suffers because of it. Morality is like white blood cells attacking bad deeds. If you get caught in a biblical mindset; that morality is defined by YHWH then its like society contracting HIV. It allows immorality to come in and not multiply because there's not enough white blood cells attacking it. Eventually it will multiply and corrupt the society until collapse. This is why Jesus tried to get away from Mosaic law and teach Love instead.
One Love.
|
|
