fatherphil

everyone is selective in which tenants they adhere to out of any social system.

would you have any problem with a celebate pedophile in the church? or how about a head pastor who is an adulterer?

Biff the unclean

Why wouldn't Christians interpret the Bible selectively?
Well for starters, because it's crazy. They would never dream of doing such a thing with any other book they read. Imagine for a minute that they decided to read the Drivers Manual that you get from the DMV with the same selectivity with which they read the word of god.

It makes no sense to criticise fundamentalists for being literalists and then round on them when they aren't.
Apples and oranges.
The literalism is condemned because while they accept that the evil nasty parts are in the bible; they rejoice in them and insist that these evils be continued.
The cherry-pickers deny that the evil is even there and promote Christianity to the unwary. Much like if I sold you a cobra telling you only how beautiful it is but denying it has poisonous fangs.

fatherphil

well biff, i tend to place more importance on not running red lights than i do in maintaining one car length space per every 10 mph i'm going. don't you?

ImGod

But the DMV says both are equally important and each answer counts the same on the test. You wouldn't want to make the DMV mad by not believing what they put in writing with all your heart, would you?

scombrid

It makes perfect sense when they take Genesis literally and try to inject it into science education or they condemn homosexuals based on literal Leviticus but they opt out of literal interpretation of rules that they find inconvenient of just damned unamenable to everyday life. Both positions deserve criticism.

emotional

Heck, even Orthodox Jews are selective in their observance of the 613 Torah laws. Usury among Jews is forbidden, but there is not one Orthodox Jew who observes this prohibition - they have all absolved themselves from it by using the sneaky Talmudic device called prozbul (permission for transaction).

Godless Dave

Nice one :notworthy

Secular Pinoy

Note that I was answering the OP, which asked Are all xians (even fundies) selective about the bible?. Liberals, such as yourself, are honest enough to admit being cherry pickers. ERose and Magus, both fundies from what I can tell, are examples of fundamentalists that are also cherry pickers. The question does not require that the examples be " leaders, scholars or representatives", though I think that they might be representative of the average fundie.

Opera Nut

Prozbul -- HMMM. Interesting equivalent of bribes to priests to commit sins & be forgiven, said bribes being called "indulgences".

In fact the cathedral at Rouen, while being built, the towers were called the "butter towers" being paid for by the bribes paid for the use of butter during Lent.

Learned that from my Art History book (Gardner's Art Thru the Ages).

EstherRose

LOL I’m a born again Christian but never thought of myself as a fundie. I guess here I would probably qualify as one.

Too funny! How many of you humanists behave with tolerance towards a Christian or any other person of religious belief? I’ve seen quite a few nasty posts directed towards Christians from the person quoted above alone.

I accept people no matter what. What I don’t like is sin. That doesn’t mean I despise people. (Except for the momentary lapse at the person who just cut me off in traffic.)
There are plenty of things in the New Testament we are admonished to follow. One of them is “no laying with another man”. It isn’t just mentioned in the Old Testament. Eye for an eye? Jesus told us to turn the other cheek. He also told us to forgive.
It’s true we don’t have to follow the Mosaic Law because we are under a New Covenant of Christ. That doesn’t mean we get to pick and chose what we feel like following. We try to lead a Christ-like life. We try to live a life without sin. We know we will fall short but we try anyway. Many of the things we try to follow are written in the New Testament. Many parts of the Law of Moses are included by the early Christians but not as Law, only as guidelines to follow while under God’s grace.
The Protestant Reformation began because of disagreement with the practice of indulgences. Jesus paid for our sins. We don’t need to pay the church for forgiveness. That particular doctrine is not one any “fundie” agrees with.