Newsweek Bible Article Slams Christians For LGBT Beliefs, Claims Bible Contradictions

A Newsweek Bible article is creating quite a stir since it specifically attacks Christians for their stance on LGBT issues, and also claims there are Bible contradictions.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, archaeologists say a new find shows evidence for the real existence of primary Bible figures King David and Solomon, who collectively wrote the book of Psalms. Although there have been some hoaxes in the news lately, even some of Jesus Christ’s miracles were supposedly documented and discussed by non-Christians of the time frame. Regardless, religious debates are waged all the time and even some atheists rewrote the Bible’s Ten Commandments.

The way the Newsweek Bible article opens up is bound to start controversy all on its own.

“They wave their Bibles at passersby, screaming their condemnations of homosexuals… They are God’s frauds, cafeteria Christians who pick and choose which Bible verses they heed with less care than they exercise in selecting side orders for lunch. They are joined by religious rationalizers — fundamentalists who, unable to find Scripture supporting their biases and beliefs, twist phrases and modify translations to prove they are honoring the Bible’s words.”

The author of the Newsweek Bible article says that Christians use the Bible as a basis for many political stances, from global warming to the wars in the Middle East, but insists that none of these arguments “are supported in the Scriptures as they were originally written.” As evidence for this stance, Newsweek cites a Pew Research poll that showed how evangelicals are only slightly more familiar with atheists in regards to Bible literacy. Newsweek then argues that the Bible cannot be used to back up many of the positions taken by Christian conservatives like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, among others.

Some websites have jumped on the bandwagon, saying the message behind the Newsweek Bible article is accurate. For example, Patheos writes that the Christian fundamentalists who are claimed to be “twisting the Bible are actually the ones taking it most seriously.”

“[T]he larger point to remember is that for every Christian who claims to know the Bible, there’s another Christian who knows that person is wrong. For that reason, it’s hardly a book from which we should be deriving our morals or laws or policy ideas.”

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, responded to the Newsweek Bible article by slamming it for misrepresenting history and the Bible itself.

“Newsweek’s cover story is exactly what happens when a writer fueled by open antipathy to evangelical Christianity tries to throw every argument he can think of against the Bible and its authority. To put the matter plainly, no honest historian would recognize the portrait of Christian history presented in this essay as accurate and no credible journalist would recognize this screed as balanced.”

According to Mohler, the major theme of Newsweek’s Bible article is to “deny that Christians have any textual basis for a negative view of homosexuality.” In order to pull this off, writer Kurt Eichenwald is accused of mixing “serious points of argument with caricatures and cartoons and he does exactly what he accuses Christians of doing — he picks his ‘facts’ and arguments for deliberate effect.”

What do you think about the arguments made by Newsweek?