1. Lisa Miller’s Cover Story, “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
A Review of
Lisa Miller’s Cover Story,
“Our Mutual Joy,”
in the
Dec. 15, 2008 issue
of Newsweek
A Review of
Newsweek’s
Dec. 15, 2008
Issue:
“The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”

2. Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Try to prove truths using random examples
Ex: Marriages of Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon
Make false claims altogether
“The Bible endorses slavery, a practice that Americans now universally consider shameful and barbaric.…It provides conceptual shelter for anti-Semites.”
Take that which is pure and make it perverted and evil
Ex: Story of David & Jonathan

3. Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Try to prove truths using random examples
Ex: Marriages of Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon
Make false claims altogether
“The Bible endorses slavery, a practice that Americans now universally consider shameful and barbaric.…It provides conceptual shelter for anti-Semites.”
Take that which is pure and make it perverted and evil
Ex: Story of David & Jonathan
Twist Jesus’ actions & words to meet their own wishes
Ex: Their wish that Jesus accept everyone unconditionally

4. Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Try to prove truths using random examples
Ex: Marriages of Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon
Make false claims altogether
“The Bible endorses slavery, a practice that Americans now universally consider shameful and barbaric.…It provides conceptual shelter for anti-Semites.”
Take that which is pure and make it perverted and evil
Ex: Story of David & Jonathan
Twist Jesus’ actions & words to meet their own wishes
Ex: Their wish that Jesus accept everyone unconditionally
Wrongfully claim we’re “all God’s children” anyway

5. Review of Newsweek’s Dec
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
If we are all God's children, made in his likeness and image, then to deny access to any sacrament based on sexuality is exactly the same thing as denying it based on skin color…
We are NOT “all God’s children.” A child of God is one who has obeyed God’s will (Gal. 3:26-27).
We have all been created by God, but NO ONE was created a homosexual. There is NO GAY GENE! Did God create a man homosexual then condemn him to death? No! Homosexuality is a learned behavior! It is something a person chooses to do!
There is no parallel between skin color and homosexuality! Where is the verse that condemns skin color in any way?

6. Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Dismiss & Mock the Bible Itself
Try to claim that the Bible cannot be trusted

7. Review of Newsweek’s Dec
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
The Editor’s Desk: Given the history of the making of the Scriptures and the millennia of critical attention scholars and others have given to the stories and injunctions that come to us in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament, to argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is…

8. Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Dismiss & Mock the Bible Itself
Try to claim that the Bible cannot be trusted
Try to claim that the Bible writers were inept and uninspired

9. Review of Newsweek’s Dec
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
The fact that homosexual couples cannot procreate has also been raised as a biblical objection, for didn't God say, "Be fruitful and multiply"? But the Bible authors could never have imagined the brave new world of international adoption and assisted reproductive technology… … The Bible was written for a world so unlike our own…

10. Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Dismiss & Mock the Bible Itself
Try to claim that the Bible cannot be trusted
Try to claim that the Bible writers were inept and uninspired
Dismiss & Mock the Authority of the Bible
Mock opposition to homosexuality using Bible as final authority

11. Review of Newsweek’s Dec
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
The Editor’s Desk: On the campus of Wheaton College in Illinois last Wednesday, in another of the seemingly endless announcements of splintering and schism in the Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan and other leaders of the conservative forces of reaction to the ecclesiastical and cultural acceptance of homosexuality declared that their opposition to the ordination and the marriage of gays was irrevocably rooted in the Bible—which they regard as the "final authority and unchangeable standard for Christian faith and life.“ … One can decide to oppose it in good faith, but such opposition should at least be forged by those in full possession of the relevant cultural and religious history and context.

12. Review of Newsweek’s Dec
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
Lisa Miller’s article: A mature view of scriptural authority requires us, as we have in the past, to move beyond literalism. The Bible was written for a world so unlike our own, it's impossible to apply its rules, at face value, to ours. … We cannot look to the Bible as a marriage manual, but we can read it for universal truths as we struggle toward a more just future. The Bible offers inspiration and warning on the subjects of love, marriage, family and community. It speaks eloquently of the crucial role of families in a fair society and the risks we incur to ourselves and our children should we cease trying to bind ourselves together in loving pairs…

13. Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Dismiss & Mock the Bible Itself
Try to claim that the Bible cannot be trusted
Try to claim that the Bible writers were inept and uninspired
Dismiss & Mock the Authority of the Bible
Mock opposition to homosexuality using Bible as final authority
Complain of unfair Scriptural advantage of gay marriage opponents

14. Review of Newsweek’s Dec
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
…the sides are unevenly matched. All the religious rhetoric, it seems, has been on the side of the gay-marriage opponents, who use Scripture as the foundation for their objections.

15. Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Dismiss & Mock the Bible Itself
Try to claim that the Bible cannot be trusted
Try to claim that the Bible writers were inept and uninspired
Dismiss & Mock the Authority of the Bible
Mock opposition to homosexuality using Bible as final authority
Complain of unfair Scriptural advantage of gay marriage opponents
Admit but then move on and dismiss clear Bible authority

16. Review of Newsweek’s Dec
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
The Bible does condemn gay male sex in a handful of passages. Twice Leviticus refers to sex between men as "an abomination“… Paul was tough on homosexuality… It recommends the death penalty for adulterers (and in Leviticus, for men who have sex with men, for that matter).

17. Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
Blatantly Misuse, Twist & Falsify Bible Teachings
Dismiss & Mock the Bible Itself
Dismiss & Mock the Authority of the Bible
Dismiss & Mock Bible Teachings
Claim homosexuality is “intrinsic” or inherited

18. Review of Newsweek’s Dec
Review of Newsweek’s Dec. 15, 2008 Issue: “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage”
The Editor’s Desk: Briefly put, the Judeo-Christian religious case for supporting gay marriage begins with the recognition that sexual orientation is not a choice—a matter of behavior—but is as intrinsic to a person's makeup as skin color.