Sunday Sermonette: Living biblically

I have only a passing acquaintance with moral philosophy, but I do know that philosophers make what amounts to a common sense distinction between morality based on principles, from which you try to figure what is right to do in a given situation; and lists of detailed, specific rules. Generally speaking, the law -- written statutes which are supposed to guide the decisions of judges and juries -- are mostly of the latter character. So that ' s what God is going to be laying down for Moses for the next while. But note that this is almost all of Old Testament morality. We get very little sense of what is right and wrong, but rather lengthy lists of dos and don ' ts.The thing is, 90% of it, from the perspective of modern cultures, is utterly abhorrent. Fundamentalist Christians claim that the Bible is the inerrant and literally true word of God, and they claim that the Bible is the foundation of their morality and personal code of conduct. Which just proves that they haven ' t read it. Here ' s Exodus 21. Note that Moses is up on the mountaintop by himself. We aren ' t told how the apparition works, if he ' s hearing the voice in his head or its coming out of the sky or what. Anyway, we have to take his word for it that God says all this.These are the ordinances that you shall set before them:2 When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt.3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs