Sudden Concern About the Bible

This comment highlights the perceived double standards of some religious folks who ignore their holy book when it suits them but wave it around to back up their own perceived right to discriminate and retain "traditional marriage". 

I doubt if the Christian bible actually prohibits same sex marriage but many of those who use the bible to back up their own desire to retain a "traditional marriage" conveniently fail to own up to the fact that both incest and male polygamy seem to have been a well-practiced and normal biblical tradition. 

A Christian would not accept incest or polygamy today. They would prefer not to discuss the technicalities of how Adam & Eve managed to become grandparents! 

Lot's two daughters became pregnant by their own father - and the book's author made no comment on the morality of it.

As a kid, I was instructed by my Mother to read the bible. When I saw this spicy tale in Genesis 19, - and other unsavoury passages - it occurred to me that they never got read as a "lesson" in the church where I used to attend! Thus I became conscious for the first time of priests cherry-picking the bible. 

Whilst Jesus condemned divorce he never spoke out against polygamy. Coveting your neighbour's wife is banned in the bible - but polygamy is not.

Deuteronomy 21:15-16 makes it clear that a man may have two wives. 

King David is described as a godly man who had numerous wives and concubines. (2 Samuel 5:13)

Rehoboam took eighteen wives, and sixty concubines. (2 Chronicles 11:21)

King Solomon loved many strange women and had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. (1 Kings 11:3)

Why was the biblical God so happy with polygamy whilst modern society is not? Who is right? 

I do not expect Christians to accept or approve these incest & polygamy examples as a model of behaviour to follow. Christian or Humanist, we all know it is wrong but it's in the "good book" which Christians often refer to as the ultimate model for social morality, particularly in the case of marriage equality and homosexuality.

The bible is there for anyone to follow, if they so desire. Most of those who do so will pick and choose the good bits that give them a warm and fuzzy feeling and ignore the immoral, genocidal, bloodthirsty and plain scientifically impossible bits - and any other bits that don't suit them. 

Because of the way it is written, anyone can interpret biblical passages in any way to support their own purposes - and perhaps this is why it has survived so long! 

Those who do profess to follow the bible do not have the moral right to use it to impose perceived biblical values on those who don't. By that I mean in particular that those churches which are against gays marrying can impose whatever marriage rules they like on their own members but they should have a more understanding attitude towards what happens outside their own tent. There is no compelling reason for church rules to become the law of the land for all.

Some say the bible is God's written word. Others say it is just inspired by God. I would postulate that a perfect omnipotent universal being would have had it well within his/her/its power to write or inspire something less vague and more concise, which cannot be manipulated and is more instructive.