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Originally Posted by Mary Baker
Most great literature is translated from the original language so many people can enjoy or benefit from it. So what? If the subject interests one should that prevent one reading a translation?
As for Westboro "Baptist" Church they seem to me to be a one man sect which no other church organization will touch because of a blatant disregard of the most fundamental beliefs of Christianity, such as love, compassion, non judgmentalism, etc.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have eternal life."
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The problem with a literal reading of the Bible is that people apply those literalist readings to absolutist beliefs, and ignore the simple fact that a text like the Bible will say multiple, often contradictory things; not even counting the ambiguities and natural limitations of translation from one language to another that further obfuscate the range of interpretations.
Groups like WBC are certainly black sheep, but they've found reasoning for their appalling beliefs from the Bible. Christians who emphasize love and non-judgment tend to only extend those niceties to people who don't offend their beliefs; and those who don't exercise judgment will scriptures that rebuke them for not practicing the rejection of certain people and ideas. The Bible is like a giant ink-blot at times, people can find what they want in it; some people have just established monoliths of Right Interpretation that they hold over others. Marcion read the Old Testament and concluded that the God of Eden, the Flood and so forth, was a false creator god, and Jesus' Father he spoke of, was a completely separate god, eager to save humanity from the demiurge. Hardly the loving Creator more orthodox Christianity asserted.
My point is, people can believe whatever they want, but just because they find a validation for their beliefs in scripture doesn't mean there's not another piece of scripture that undermines it.
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