Warning: controversial content.
I grew up in a Christian home, not a we-went-to-church-every-Sunday Christian home, but an Evangelical Christian home. We went to church and Sunday School every week. My grandfather passed out tracts and proselytized at the County Fair each year. My brothers and I went to private Christian school for 13 years, kindergarten through twelfth grade. My aunt taught there. I set up all this background because you need to understand how divergent my views are today from the way I was brought up, from those that surrounded me.
We come from a society where we are constantly told to consider the source to attribute reliability. We carefully assess information that we encounter every day. Should we not also consider the content in addition to the source? Think objectively through what you read. Keeping this in mind...
Why is it OK to constantly defend horrific things that took place in Biblical times because "we don't understand what it was like then" or "times were very different" or even "that was the culture". Why? Why would a loving God EVER be accepting of one man owning another. Or for a man having multiple wives and countless concubines. Or for soldiers taking women as spoils of war.
There are so many things that we are supposed to accept simply because it's in the Bible. After all, inspired or not, the Bible was written by man, many men in fact. Isn't there a potential for a wide margin of error there? Men are self-involved and self-serving. Is it such a stretch to think that somewhere along the line a man, an imperfectly flawed man, wrote something other than what God intended.
I think it's time to realize that it's naive to believe everything you read, regardless of the source. Sit back and mull over what you believe. I think you'll be surprised what you allow yourself to acknowledge.
Remember, God doesn't hate anyone. He IS love.
