...because the bible tells me so

       As a child and young adult, I was inducted into Roman Catholicism with the camp song, "Jesus loves me, yes I know; because the bible tells me so."  Yup, that's what it says and if it's written there in the bible it's gotta be true!
       When a parent has a disabled child who becomes a disabled adult-child, life altering spirituality takes possession of beliefs, hopes and dreams.  At times the anthropomorphic delineations of deity are challenged to the core.  A loving, all knowing, all powerful, all merciful deity could never allow this to occur to one of his creatures.  I am reminded so intimately of Albert Camus, "The Stranger" and the words "I refuse to live in a world where little children suffer and die each day."  Seems like these should have been the words of a deity not a French existentialist.  N0?
        God and disability?  I have seen two paths chosen by parents and caregivers.  Some are drawn closer to the hopes and promises of the Abrahamic religions.  There, a belief exists that there is a direct correlation between suffering and sanctity and ultimately redemption.  Some go so far as to buy into the concept the concept of a "victim soul"  a la Mother Theresa. Others, I have seen, are drawn away from the anthropomorphic deity and join with a energetic Source which sustains and recreates life.  One without rules, prohibitions, adornments and followers.  These folks are drawn to a personal energetic space and personal bond with the energy of life itself.  I am the in latter camp, more so each day.  Of course, neither path is right or wrong; neither can be proven nor validated.
      So, I thought I would share some of my favorite bible verses from my other past life...just because.  These bible passage are never part of liturgy, integrated into an inspirational sermon or form the basis for an uplifting blog by writers seeking converts.  I wonder why?


So here goes::


"I will smash them one against the other, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them." (Jerimiah 13:14)




"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated (anah) her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives." Deuteronomy 22:28-29 

Deuteronomy 25:11-12

^" And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. (Jerimiah 19:9)

"Their children shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes! There houses spoiled, and their wives raped...Dash the young men to pieces...have no pity on the fruit of the womb, the children shall not be spared"   

(Isaiah 13:16-18 )

There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled. -- Ezekiel 23:20-21

FOR THOSE GIVING THEIR DAUGHTERS AWAY TO MARRIAGE

1 Samuel 18:25-27

New International Version (NIV)

²⁵ Saul replied, “Say to David, ‘The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.’” Saul’s plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines.
²⁶ When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed, ²⁷ David took his men with him and went out and killed two hundred Philistines and brought back their foreskins. They counted out the full number to the king so that David might become the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.

God will not hear the cries of the people or acknowledge their sacrifices (Jeremiah 14:12).

God will make people hungry enough to eat their own children and friends (Jeremiah 19:9).
God will burn entire cities with the inhabitants still inside (Jeremiah 50:32).
God will kill children when they come out of their mothers wombs (Hosea 10:14).
God will tear people apart and devour them like a lion (Hosea 13:8).
God will kill children and unborn foetuses because their parents worship other gods (Hosea 13:16).


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Follow this chain of logic:

"But anyone who says 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." (Jesus) Mat 5:22

"You fools!" (Jesus) Luke 11:40
"You blind fools!" (Jesus) Mat 23:17
"How foolish you are" (Jesus) Luke 24:25
"But God said to him, 'You fool!' " (Jesus) Luke 12:20
"You foolish Galatians!" (St. Paul) Galatians 3:1
"You foolish man" James 2:20
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Deuteronomy 21:11-14 If you see a pretty woman among the captives then just take her
home and “go in unto her.”

Deuteronomy 22:5 Women that wear men’s clothing are an “abomination unto the Lord.”

Numbers 30:3-16 A woman can’t make a vow unless her husband allows it.

Leviticus 27:3-7 God places a dollar value on human life; with women worth less than
men.

Exodus 21:7 God not only sanctions selling ones daughter into slavery, but he also gives
laws on how it should be done.

Deuteronomy 20:13-15 Kill all the men and boys in the cities that God “delivers into your
hands,” but keep the women for raping.
Give no woman power over you to trample upon your dignity. (Sirach 9:2 NAB)

1 Timothy 2:15 says only women who have children will be spared hell

Men are worth more than women - Leviticus 27:1-7 actually provides dollar comparisons!

"Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted [sic] , brokenhanded [sic], Or crookbackt [sic], or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God." (Leviticus 21:17-21)  Does this mean our disabled have to languish in purgatory or somewhere worse?  Damn!!!!

Men aren't allowed to trim their beards or shave their heads (Leviticus 21:5)

I am so happy that I don't have to shave anymore...my wife will kill me, though!  Just sayin'


Then again, I'm havin' second thoughts...maybe the Koran and Islam is the way to go:



Koran 78:31
As for the righteous, they shall surely triumph. Theirs shall be gardens and vineyards, and high- bosomed virgins for companions: a truly overflowing cup.
Koran 37:40-48
...They will sit with bashful, dark-eyed virgins, as chaste as the sheltered eggs of ostriches.
Koran 44:51-55
...Yes and We shall wed them to dark-eyed houris. (beautiful virgins)
Koran 52:17-20
...They shall recline on couches ranged in rows. To dark-eyed houris (virgins) we shall wed them...


   Yup, now I've got it straight!  Allah loves me, yes I know; because the Koran tells me so!


    But now, the story to end all stories...never read in church...

Genesis 19:30-36

New International Version (NIV)

Lot and His Daughters

³⁰ Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. ³¹ One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth.³² Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
³³ That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
³⁴ The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” ³⁵ So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
³⁶ So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.


   See, in those days there was no cover-up by bishops and popes...God wrote about it in the Bible for all to know.... and now, I have to give this up!
   P.S. Always get a hoot from those folks who long for the return of the "good olde days"?