{"id":22032,"date":"2014-03-05T07:55:02","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T12:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=22032"},"modified":"2014-03-05T07:55:02","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T12:55:02","slug":"leviticus-defiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/03\/leviticus-defiled.html","title":{"rendered":"Leviticus Defiled"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a larger taste of the latest post at Susan Pigott\u2019s blog Scribalishess, \u201cLeviticus Defiled\u201d<\/a>, from which the above quote is taken:<\/p>\n

Leviticus is a book that most Christians simply don\u2019t read\u2014won\u2019t read. They find it tedious and difficult to understand. They say it\u2019s \u201cOld Covenant\u201d so they don\u2019t have to observe any of its strange laws (especially the dietary ones). \u201cJesus freed us from all that,\u201d they say, happily. They see no real use for it, and say that it has no relevance to them. They ignore it, and the pages of Leviticus still stick together in their Bibles, the gold embossed edges unmarred.<\/p>\n

Leviticus is the ugly step-daughter of the Old Testament\u2014easily forgotten, overlooked, and untouched like an unclean woman.<\/p>\n

Except when Leviticus is useful.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s useful when you want to pluck a few convenient verses out of context from the book to condemn and humiliate and justify hatred. Or when a parent wants to keep his\/her child from getting a tattoo.<\/p>\n

Such \u201cuses\u201d of Leviticus are defilement. When you use a biblical book only to condemn but ignore it otherwise, that\u2019s bibliolatry. You are defiling God\u2019s word by using it wrongly and selectively. When you ignore a book filled with important (but difficult) theology only to appeal to it when it\u2019s convenient, you are abusing it. This is biblical pornography\u2014putting selected verses on display in a way that defiles them and uses them for your own perverted purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod hates fags!\u201d (Lev. 18:22; Lev. 20:13).\u00a0That<\/em>\u00a0is Leviticus defiled. Does Leviticus really say God hates fags? No. Do people who use such verses have any other purpose than to promote hatred? No. Have these people ever read Leviticus in its entirety? Likely, no. And have they ever bothered to read these verses in context? No.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click through<\/a> to read the rest.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a larger taste of the latest post at Susan Pigott\u2019s blog Scribalishess, \u201cLeviticus Defiled\u201d, from which the above quote is taken: Leviticus is a book that most Christians simply don\u2019t read\u2014won\u2019t read. They find it tedious and difficult to understand. They say it\u2019s \u201cOld Covenant\u201d so they don\u2019t have to observe any of its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":22033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1163,6516,12104],"class_list":["post-22032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leviticus","tag-bibliolatry","tag-leviticus","tag-susan-pigott"],"yoast_head":"\nLeviticus Defiled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's a larger taste of the latest post at Susan Pigott's blog Scribalishess, "Leviticus Defiled", from which the above quote is taken: Leviticus is a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/03\/leviticus-defiled.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leviticus Defiled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here's a larger taste of the latest post at Susan Pigott's blog Scribalishess, "Leviticus Defiled", from which the above quote is taken: Leviticus is a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/03\/leviticus-defiled.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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