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{"id":12151,"date":"2010-12-21T00:09:09","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T06:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=12151"},"modified":"2010-12-19T20:07:42","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T02:07:42","slug":"is-god-a-moral-monster-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/12\/21\/is-god-a-moral-monster-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Is God a Moral Monster? 6"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Do you observe the food laws of the Old Testament? Do you eat pork? shellfish? any meat cooked in milk or a milky gravy? Any kind of sauce on pasta (with meat) that has milk in the sauce?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why do you or why do you not?[Tell us what comes to mind first.]
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are the food laws \u201cfor us\u201d? [Tell us what you think.]
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

And, what can we learn from this stuff? [Again.]
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Copan\u2019s approach begins with two views that are denied as the reasons for what the food laws are designed to accomplish.<\/p>\n

First, the food laws are not about health or hygiene. There is no sign at all of health concerns, and if there are health concerns, then Jesus shouldn\u2019t have made all food clean in Mark 7:19.
\nSecond, the food laws are not about separation from other religions \u2014 the evidence isn\u2019t clear enough to say that. And there are too many parallel customs between the laws of Israel and other religions.So how do we explain these things? Copan appears to me to mix views in his reading. He sees two factors at work:<\/p>\n

First, he sees creation establishing a pure orderly system and food stuffs that derive from unorderly animals are not clean. That is, taxonomic irregularities are unclean. Animals that are in the waters are to have fins and scales \u2014 that\u2019s the pure order \u2014 and animals that don\u2019t have such are not clean.<\/p>\n

But, second, Copan also appeals to death and life. I don\u2019t think this explanation works for all concerns, but it does for many: predatory birds and carnivores and animals that are vulnerable to the predatory system are unclean. OK, death and life \u2014 yes, that\u2019s a big concern.<\/p>\n

Then we deal with blood and semen, both of which are powerful symbols of life. Here\u2019s where I would differ: semen outside the body or blood outside the body are connected by Copan to death while I would say they are \u201cunordered.\u201d That is, blood belongs in the body and semen does too (or in its proper receptacle). Even then sexual intercourse renders a person unclean until they can wash and wait for daybreak. (Hence the later rabbinic ruling to have sex later in the night.) So, when either of these body fluids gets outside its domain it renders a person unclean.<\/p>\n

However we explain these \u2014 order or connection to death \u2014 the issue really at work is:<\/p>\n

Why? Copan connects this to the ordered holy existence of the People of God. As God is pure and unmixed so God expects his people to be ordered and unmixed.<\/p>\n

Again, what we can we learn from this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

And what does Jesus\u2019 statement about declaring all foods clean (Mark 7:19) or Peter\u2019s statement that the not even Jews could carry the load of the laws (Acts 15:10) say about all this for Christians today?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"