Obama on the Bible

What are you saying? That war is always wrong now?

AJ

 

Read back a couple.

 

I agree. I think it is a nonsequitor for some folks to bring up the "God ordered His people to war" in the Old Testament to justify going to war today. The arguments you just made are sufficient without using a silly argument as some people do.

 

All correct, but slavery is against our constitution so our constitution is in conflict with the Bible.

So back to his question, "passage of scripture should guide our public policy"?

I don't think he was pretending to be a biblical scholar, he was making an analogy. There are many philosophers he could have used but he chose the Bible. I agree, it would have helped if he understood it better but there are many people who take scripture out of context. He isn't the first and won't be the last.

 

No, just that the "God ordered His people to war in the Old Testament" is a nonsequitor and the idea of justified war can be made on better premises as Major B has done.

 

The Constitution does not outlaw slavery--that would be the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, passed after the Civil War.

 

The amendments are part of the constitution.

 

Yeah, but he sure sounds sanctimonious when he is misquoting and misapplying it.

Public policy and law in the West has been driven at least partly by the Bible for a long time--basically since there WAS "the West." It was evangelicals like Wilberforce who ended slavery and worked toward ending lots of other social ills. The Bible Belt in the US was NOT in the antebellum South, but in the North, where evangelists and preachers railed against slavery. The South became the Bible belt in the decades after the war because of a massive revival that swept the Southern camps as they were losing.

But let's cut to the chase. This is a democracy. If I believe that something (Gay Marriage, Abortion, Paris Hilton) should be against the Law, I have the right to vote that conviction, and the fact that it came from the Bible is just a motivator.

 

Yeah, but the point is that the Founders left that one on the back burner until it overflowed.

 

I agree with your statement here Ken, but lately many that oppose the war have used the "Prince of Peace" argument, suggesting that any disruption of peace is evil. My response was made with that argument in mind. I think it is just as silly to argue that Bush is a heathen because he invaded Iraq. None of us know what God really thinks of this, but to say that the war is unjust, ungodly or unbiblical is wrong. We dont know what God thinks, but he does command us to submit to our government.

And yes MajorB you did state a sound argument that is certainly biblical, and this whole subject has inspired a new area of bible study for me.:thumbs:

AJ

 

I'll put you down for one dance with Michelle. :thumbs:

 

All of us are intrinsically evil, except for Christ Jesus, after the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden.

 

Ah, so he is using the Bush tactic... :thumbs:

I see...