The horrible hypocrisy of cherry-picking the bible
Read Time:3 Minute, 45 Second
In 2009, a 49-year old gay man was brutally beaten outside a Queens, NY deli. The attack was caught on tape. Two men, Daniel Rodriguez and Daniel Aleman were arrested and charged with a hate crime. The victim, Jack Price, was in a medically-induced coma for four days.
A friend of Daniel Rodriguez, Marcel Gelmi, spoke to local news after the attack, and said that Mr. Price had blown a kiss at Rodriguez and “propositioned” him, thus justifying the brutal attack. According to Gelmi, Price should not have complained. Gelmi, told the reporter “I mean, I don’t want no man blowing me a kiss, either. I mean, things happen. I’ve been beat up like that too, but you don’t see me on the news and my family crying and this and that. Wounds heal.”
What apparently never heals is stupidity. Marcel Gelmi proudly showed off one of his many tattoos to the reporter, and the moment was captured forever on film. On his right upper arm, Marcel Gelmi has this passage from Leviticus: “Thou shall not lie with a male as one does with a woman. It is an abomination.” So, now that we all know Marcel Gelmi hates the LGBT community, let’s take a look at something else Gelmi might want to read in the book of Leviticus. From the New International Version of the bible:
“Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.”
Well, that’s awkward.
Marcel Gelmi once again brings logical people to the conclusion that fundamentalists and professional haters are clueless when it comes to the bible. For God’s sake (literally), to TATTOO something from the book of Leviticus that contains a law forbidding you to have TATTOOS?
Fundies cling to the bizarre notion that parts of the bible are to be taken literally (things that encourage them to hate) while others parts are interpretive (things that make them think). For those of you who missed it, I wrote an article for Mad Mike’s about the fact that the bible, in numerous places, speaks to life beginning when you take your first breath. OH NO, they cried, that’s interpretive.
Fundies cherry pick the bible. It’s becoming more and more obvious, the more rational people call them out and ask questions, or write articles, or make videos. We want to have one person, one fundamentalist, one evangelical, someone, explain to us why you all are so hung up on gay people, but you’re wearing polyester, don’t honor the Sabbath and haven’t stoned an adulterer lately.
To Marcel Gelmi, I say, dude, seriously. Could you have made yourself look any more ridiculous? Tattooing a passage from the book in the bible that forbids you from having tattoos? I bet there are a TON of men, and women, who scream while frothing at the mouth about the evils of homosexuality, using Leviticus 18:22, while showing off their latest Confederate flag tattoo.
Do they really not get it? And if they do get it, why can’t they explain it to the rest of us? Why is Leviticus 18:22 the only thing in the bible any of them take literally? Help the poor? Screw that. Love thy neighbor? Screw that, too. Don’t get a tattoo. Life begins with the first breath. Honor the Sabbath. Sell all you have and follow Jesus. INTERPRETIVE! Gays are bad. LITERAL!
Explain it me, please. Tell me how it’s perfectly all right for fundamentalists to be hypocrites of epic proportions. Tell me why every fundamentalist and evangelical doesn’t have a red tent in the backyard. Share the wisdom that allows right wing Christians to ignore practically everything in their own holy book but a few passages that seem to justify their own hate and bigotry. I want someone to clear up the mystery of cherry picking the bible.
Next, we’ll delve into the story of Ham, Noah’s naughty son who saw Noah nude and was cursed by God! (The Klan loves the story of Ham.)
Lord, protect me from your followers. Please.
Thanks to The Advocate for information on Marcel Gelmi and yes, the bible, for the Leviticus passages.
Article originally written by Erin Nanasi. It has been edited from the original version published at MadMikesAmerica on May 21, 2012,
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As long as we have ‘cherry pickers’ / moderate xians, the myths and fairy tales of the bible will always be perpetuated. The vast majority of these moderates don’t go to church on a regular basis and don’t follow their hol(e)y book. Hypocrisy at its best.
Yup. You are right on every point RickRay.
“Gay Panic” is what defense attorney’s try to use in casses like the one you mentioned. It has been used successfully in many cases, because as you all know “teh gheyz” are all icky and into the buttsechs, so they must be deviants trying to hit on the hetero males whenever they get the chance to. If a man, any man, is secure in his manhood and sexuality when a gay man tried to come on to him, the regular dude would be all, no thanks but thanks for the ego boost. It’s the pigs among us that cry gay panic, and he made me beat his ass because he looked at me funny is the last resort because it will probably sell to the idjits they surround themelf with. Either that or the dude liked the attention and was scared to admit it, lots of self loathing in gay h8rs. Notive that these guys typically have no issues with lesbians because in the back of their minds they think yeah that is hot, which it is srsly, and maybe they will ask me to join. Little do they know, the lesbians want nothing to do with them and like my aunt says, join hell no, but you can go in the corner and watch if you want.
As far as cherry picking the buybull, they all do that when it suits them. I never tire of bringing up eating shellfish and commenting on clothing fabric choices, when I am around these morons and they get to talking about what Lawd Hammercy says and does not say.
I still adhere to my Oops theory (published long ago in MMA) not that any of the religious would even follow it. The Oops theory states that once God had put man on earth with his insane wars and expectations he says to himself, “Oops, maybe I didn’t explain this very well. Maybe I need to put a representative on earth to give them some New Rules (stolen from Bill Mahr) to follow. Jesus, son I have a job for you.” Then he sent Jesus to earth with a whole new list of rules about loving the neighbor, not being judgmental, etc. Unfortunately, Jesus forgot to tell them that the Old Testament applied only to the Jews and not to everyone else. The Christians were supposed to only follow the New Testament and forget about the old one. I’d not sure what he will do not. Maybe he needs to send another son and tell them to completely do away with the Bible and start adhering to the New Book of Common Sense.
Now you’ve aroused my curiosity. Do you have more than “oops” for the title Bill? I need to find it 🙂
Speaking of “Cherry Picking” jeus also was supposed to have said:
Matthew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
I would be significantly more worried if they didn’t cherrypick. The fact that they do at least shows that they know the book is dumb on some level. To all the religious people out there who aren’t taking their holy books literally, thank you. That book is the cause and clothing of great evil in this world.
God point. I never thought abut that. It does point to a bit more, OK a LOT more, hypocrisy doesn’t it?
I like the Unitarian church. Their philosophy: Jesus lived a normal life, got married, had kids, and then died. There’s no worshiping of deities and no praying. Just a lot of introspection, fascinating topics, and everything that is not religion.
Very interesting. I wonder if we have any here in Oklahoma. I’ll have to look into that. Thanks for the edit.
Except for the “minor” problem of there is no contemporary accounts of any jesus to indicate his is more than a myth, stolen from the earlier myths of Horus, Attis, and Mithra, for example.
This is what I mean:
A Few Noticeable Events in the Life of Jesus
Herod’s slaughter of all the baby boys in Bethlehem.
Jesus’ triumphant entry in jerusalem, where the entire town welcomes him as their king.
Jesus casting out the greedy moneychangers. (in an area about the size of 34 football fields)
Two earthquakes his Jerusalem.
Supernatural darkness covers “all the land” for hours.
The Sacred Temple curtain tears from top to bottom.
All the dead holy men in the cemetery come out of their graves and wander Jerusalem, “appearing to many.”
And yet, contemporary historians in the time of Jesus didn’t write about any of this.
Also:
In the case of the historical Jesus, there is not one contemporary record of his existence. The Romans, who otherwise kept very good records never mentioned a figure who was supposed to be socially, politically, and spiritually so significant as well as publicly performing many miracles; then was executed after a very public trial.
Not until the Gospel of Mark, written from 40 to over 100 years after the supposed crucifixion, (depending upon which biblical scholar you choose to believe) is there any mention of Jesus. If we look at the fables of Horus, Attis, and Mithra, we see amazing similarities. Born in low circumstances on December 25, 12 followers, executed at an early age, son of a god, the list goes on. It would appear that the early church, in need of a powerful central figure, “borrowed” from earlier myths to create a rallying point for their religion.
Finally:
As stated by Dr. Bart Ehrman, Professor of religious studies at the University of North Caroline, Chapel Hill, NC said, “In the entire first Christian century, Jesus is not mentioned by a single Greek or Roman scholar, politician, philosopher, or poet. His name never appears in a single inscription, and it is never found in a single piece of private correspondence. Zero! Zip references!”
It seems the entire religion is founded upon lies. Is it any surprise they could continue t lie and attract more liars and the gullible?
Yep exactly why we don’t attend a church. And if I did decide to join one, I would prefer a lesbian preacher because the fact that most churches don’t allow women to preach pisses me off just as much as their hatred for gays. And you women who attend churches who don’t allow women preachers should be ashamed of yourselves. And if you have daughters, what kind of message are you sending? Shame on you. I’ve recently read about a Methodist Church in North Carolina, kind of an unlikely place to start this, that has decided not to marry anyone until gays are allowed to marry. Go them! Also, I can’t stand to listen to hypocrite, Dave Ramsey, preach the bible and bitch about liberals all day then tell his callers that God wants his children to be rich. Did he miss the part about a camel passing through an eye of a needle before a rich person makes it to heaven??
Well I tried to edit my comment but the text wouldn’t pull up. Obviously my keyboard changes all words from gay to guy. So please replace the word guy with gay.
Done. Now your comment is very “gay.” 🙂
Dueteronomy says you shall not covet another man’s wife… Nor shall you covet his ass. Plain as day Peter. And your namesake is the rock on whom Jesus founded His church. How dare you bring up hypocrisies we’re not supposed to bring up.
Reading this reminds me why I hate Christians.
It has reached the point where the words, “theist” and “hypocrite” are semantically equal.