Smoke Betts: Non-objective view on religion

In reference to the July 10 Point of View “Uncompelling ‘biblical marriage’ ”: It is easy to agree with the author that “freedom of religion” needs specificity, but as the piece continues, it makes the often-repeated error of confusing events reported by the Bible with actions that are either condoned or condemned by Bible teaching.

This error is furthered when the context of the original writing is either overlooked or misunderstood. Both of these errors are evident in the article’s discussion of slavery. The result is an invalid conclusion.

Also, a close reading of Jesus’ teaching that the writer quoted from Luke 14:26 is a clear misinterpretation. Without doubt, Jesus is using hyperbole (exaggeration to illustrate a point). He is not teaching hate as implied by the Point of View.

A more thorough look for Jesus’ teaching on marriage would include Matthew 19:1-12, where in responding to religious leaders’ attempts to counter his teaching, he refers to the Creator’s marriage model, which is one man and one woman.

One hopes our reputable divinity colleges can be more objective in their teaching than is found in this opinion piece.

This story was originally published July 18, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Smoke Betts: Non-objective view on religion."