I grew up in a religious setting where interpreting the Bible or questioning the Bible was considered taboo. Everything in the Bible was meant to be taken literally as it was inspired by God and written by God. But, there were numerous passages that I just couldn't get behind or couldn't understand (e.g. passages about slavery, the role of women, etc.). On top of that, the church would oftentimes use certain passages to condemn certain things (e.g. the story of Sodom and Gomorrah to condemn homosexuality). I was never able to accept this and never thought that the God I knew would stand for this. It wasn't until I started doing more researching and reading and looking into hermeneutics (i.e. the way of interpreting the Bible) that I finally found a body of scholars and Christians that advocated for the power as well as the humanity of the Bible. There are many that believe that every word in the Bible was not written by God and that the cultural and social context in which the Bible was written is important to consider when interpreting its writings and teachings. It seemed like it took a while for me to find this information, but man am I glad I did. Has anyone had a similar experience or holds another way of looking at things?
I grew up in a liberal catholic home but saw how other Christians treated the lgbtq+ community, it cause me to be atheist for a while. But after doing my own research I’ve found the English translations to be wildly incorrect when it comes to the clobber passages. In addition, we must take culture and society of the ancient times into account when interpreting the Bible.
Glad to see this web site come alive...looking forward to following it. I am 68 yrs old, male and straight, but I agree 100% that God's love is for all. I hope folks can find a loving, celebratory community here!