The Null Device

Bible as hate literature

A Canadian court has ruled that parts of the bible are hate literature; specifically, the parts of Leviticus that mandate the putting to death of homosexuals and adulterers. The court upheld a ruling by a human rights tribunal which fined a man for putting an ad in a newspaper quoting Bible verses denouncing homosexuality. It's refreshing to see authorities who aren't blinded from such things by a belief that religion is the basis of all morality, civilisation and common human decency, and a spot of xenophobic hatred here and there is a small price to pay for fending off the chaos, nihilism and lawlessness that would follow mass godlessness. (via rotten.com)

There are 6 comments on "Bible as hate literature":

Posted by: Ritchie http:// Sun Feb 23 11:01:48 2003

If I were given the job of choosing what went into the Bible, I'd leave Leviticus and take out Revelation.

Why? Firstly because it is clearly the ravings of a madman. Secondly, it more than any other book directly undermines the message of Christ, which otherwise would sound a lot like Buddhism, heh heh.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Sun Feb 23 15:50:00 2003

Still, Leviticus makes the whole package too appealing to the naturally hateful. If you had a Bible which would require a lot of disingenuity to use as a justification for hatred, it may be more appealing.

Mind you, the question is whether a meme-complex that doesn't allow putting infidels to the sword (literally or metaphorically) would be as competitive in the ideosphere.

Posted by: Chloe http://www.watermelonpunch.com/ Tue Feb 25 16:21:23 2003

The KKK doesn't even dare post their stuff in the newspaper now - and they've been long known to quote the bible in favour of their racism.

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com Wed Feb 26 00:33:18 2003

The Bible is wonderful. You can find whatever you're looking for in it.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Wed Feb 26 04:23:57 2003

Also, wouldn't it be fair to describe as being not so much the words of Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ fanfic written by a particularly unhinged fan?

Posted by: Ritchie http:// Wed Feb 26 05:12:54 2003

I don't think so. Part of the power of Christ's words were their simplicity; everybody 'got it' and messages that simple are difficult to co-opt by the power elite. The message certainly survived the Gospels, and various translations, but was turned inside-out with the addition of Revelation. With the addition of that book, suddenly any white-suited TV evangelist or hooded racist could lay claim to Christ's message and make being Christian mean whatever they wanted it to mean.