A new and overdue feature of many news and information sites is that comments are turned off.  Without investigating everyone or even a sample I rest comfortably in the position of my own blog.  You visit, you read,  you copy, you, download, because you are free.  I remain uninterested in uninformed banter.  I am not interested in debate. Most discussions of biblical matters wind up in a gutter. I am not an opinion-monger.

The frequent and the rare

How many times does God liberate a people from slavery and abuse, and offer them some one else’s land? How often are people asked to build a tent strictly for worshipping God and for seeking his approval and relief?  The answer to both questions is once.

Both rare and frequent events deserve the label biblical but saying that food and drink are biblical matters misses the point that divine interests change. You will not convince the millions who are tuned in to the Bible that God in the 21st  century wants the smell of burning animal fat, roasted beef, goat, mutton, or bird as part of the human response to his goodness.  You will not have a leg to stand on if you are telling males who are seeking God that they need to be circumcised.  This is why it is important to have the right division of the text, the correct interpretation of whatever we read.  Something important can happen a lot – even happen every day and all the time –  and yet it is irrelevant to the kingdom of God, like circumcision.  If a thing such as circumcision that defines Judaism (or defines a Jew) is irrelevant to God it means that Jewishness and all of the claims of Judaism aimed at the global community are irrelevant.

No discussion

How do the holy speak with the unholy? Do they repeat the divisive terms of their respective camps and expect understanding?  Does each have terms that the other does not and cannot be expected to possess?

I know that all the sayings about obedience are bound to splatter all over the walls and drip to the floor because no record exists to corroborate the obedience of a single generation.  The case has been made that no human at any stage of development or enlightenment has been found in full and perfect compliance with what God wants. The proof of that is the fact that God waited four millennia to unlock his master plan,  during which time no human candidate arose to redeem the human race.

Turned off and tuned out

The social media operators have empowered public comment without recognizing that comments do not always arise from thought and reflection. In political and religious circles nothing is fixed or established as long as someone can say something “what-aboutish” or several things completely unrelated to a topic and stay in the conversation as a contributor. There is an end to chiming in that is welcome and the public comment frenzy deserves its demise.