{"id":30819,"date":"2015-06-29T06:17:31","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T10:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=30819"},"modified":"2015-06-29T06:17:31","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T10:17:31","slug":"bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html","title":{"rendered":"Bible Proof-Texting Is An Unwinnable Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"winning<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago,\u00a0Fred Clark posted about the way playing Bible clobber verses resembles a card game<\/a>. His point reminded me of the famous scene towards the end of the movie WarGames<\/em><\/a>. And so I wrote, in a post entitled \u201cHow To Win At Bible\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The only winning move<\/em>\u00a0in the clobber verse Bible game is\u00a0<\/span>not to play<\/em>. For even to play the game concedes the rules for Bible reading to be what fundamentalists claim it is: a distortion which prefers select texts removed from their contexts to the deeper comprehension that can only come from treating texts as texts, as wholes, with sensitivity to genre, nuance, and other aspects of communication.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This topic seemed worth revisiting in relation to the current discussions about same-sex marriage<\/a>. There are some who think that, if they can just find the right verses<\/a> and the right interpretations of them, they can show the anti-gay Christians that they are wrong.<\/p>\n

But their wrongness does not stem from\u00a0their having fixated on the wrong verses, or the wrong interpretation of verses. Their wrongness stems from their having fixated on verses at all<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The defenders<\/a> of slavery<\/a> had a firm belief<\/a> in an inerrant Bible<\/a>. They had careful exegesis<\/a>\u00a0of the Bible<\/a> on their side. They had specific passages<\/a>\u00a0lined up.<\/p>\n

What they lacked was a prioritization of principles<\/a> such as the Golden Rule<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If one is convinced that one should do to others as one would wish done to oneself, and one would not wish to be another\u2019s property, then one cannot own another person.<\/p>\n

No amount of exegesis should ever be allowed to trump empathy and compassion.<\/p>\n

And so I encourage Christians<\/a> who support marriage equality to take a stand not just for\u00a0<\/em>marriage equality but also\u00a0against<\/em> prooftexting. It is not just an unwinnable game, it is\u00a0designed\u00a0<\/em>to be an unwinnable game, and one that\u00a0serves as a bulwark against the implications of following Jesus and taking the core<\/a> principles<\/a> he taught seriously.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of years ago,\u00a0Fred Clark posted about the way playing Bible clobber verses resembles a card game. His point reminded me of the famous scene towards the end of the movie WarGames. And so I wrote, in a post entitled \u201cHow To Win At Bible\u201d: The only winning move\u00a0in the clobber verse Bible game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":30820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[461,1140,6523,9530,9625,9628,13208,13552],"class_list":["post-30819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","tag-al-mohler","tag-bible","tag-lgbtq","tag-principles","tag-proof-texts","tag-proof-texting","tag-unwinnable","tag-wargames"],"yoast_head":"\nBible Proof-Texting Is An Unwinnable Game<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A couple of years ago,\u00a0Fred Clark posted about the way playing Bible clobber verses resembles a card game. His point reminded me of the famous scene\" \/>\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\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bible Proof-Texting Is An Unwinnable Game\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A couple of years ago,\u00a0Fred Clark posted about the way playing Bible clobber verses resembles a card game. His point reminded me of the famous scene\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-29T10:17:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html\",\"name\":\"Bible Proof-Texting Is An Unwinnable Game\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-29T10:17:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-29T10:17:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"A couple of years ago,\u00a0Fred Clark posted about the way playing Bible clobber verses resembles a card game. His point reminded me of the famous scene\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bible Proof-Texting Is An Unwinnable Game\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bible Proof-Texting Is An Unwinnable Game","description":"A couple of years ago,\u00a0Fred Clark posted about the way playing Bible clobber verses resembles a card game. His point reminded me of the famous scene","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bible Proof-Texting Is An Unwinnable Game","og_description":"A couple of years ago,\u00a0Fred Clark posted about the way playing Bible clobber verses resembles a card game. His point reminded me of the famous scene","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2015-06-29T10:17:31+00:00","author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html","name":"Bible Proof-Texting Is An Unwinnable Game","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-06-29T10:17:31+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-29T10:17:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"A couple of years ago,\u00a0Fred Clark posted about the way playing Bible clobber verses resembles a card game. His point reminded me of the famous scene","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/06\/bible-proof-texting-is-an-unwinnable-game.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bible Proof-Texting Is An Unwinnable Game"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}