Quit the Bible-thumping already

I know my way around the Bible, a little. . .

Some years ago I attended a seminary. I was preparing to become a Presbyterian minister. That came to an end with the culmination of a gradual process. I found myself thinking more like a Catholic every day, and the market for Presbyterian ministers who think like Catholics is kind of limited. In September, 1992, with open heart surgery looming on the horizon, I was bvaptized, confirmed and took my first Eucharist as a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

Back to the seminary. The Presbyterian Church requires of its ministerial candidates the demonstrated ability to do exegesis on biblical texts in Greek (for the New Testament) and Hebrew (for the Hebrew Scriptures.) So, on my first day of classes the very first class was Hebrew. Dr. Wallace told us to open our copies of the Biblia Hebraica to Deuteronomy 6:4-5. A couple of things to keep in mind about this venture. Hebrew is read from right to left, instead of left-to-right as we're used to. And, the alphabet is not like anything we've seen before. Find Deuteronomy? We don't even know which way is up in these things. But get there we did, and found perhaps the most powerful passage of Scripture in the Hebrew Scriptures:

Sh'ma, Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad.

It is the key passage in Jewish belief, and countless Jewish martyrs have died with this on their lips:

Sh'ma, Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad.

"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one."

It was Jesus' first and most important command: Ve' ahav'tah eth adonai elohei ka v'col l'vav ka, uv col nafshe ka, uv col maode ka. You shall love the Lord your God with all your hearts, with all your souls, with all your (and here it's tricky; maode ka doesn't translate precisely) - muchness? abundance? You get the idea.

Then Jesus' second command: Ve ahav ta larea ka kamo ka, ani Adonai. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

I am no naif in Biblical interpretation. I know my way around. There is much I don't know, of course, and I would tell anyone who goes to the Bible in search of answers to their questions to not be surprised if the outcome is that they wind up with questions for their answers. But I do know this:

Nowhere in my Bible am I given the right to thump that Bible in condemnation of another. NOWHERE. And I am not willing to be the first stone-thrower.

So, to my LGBT friends, I am given one command: to love you. I hope you win the marriage equality battles. I hope you find the joy and contentment and wonder in your marriages that I have found in the 38 years of mine. I love you, my brothers and sisters.

Thanks.