I saw this post and immediately thought, “which Jesus?” It was complicated enough when the discussion was limited to personal piety, how to best live the words of the gospels, but to elevate things so that sins become crimes and that interpretations of the biblical texts become state issues is terrifying. Does anyone remember when civic western civilization last fell and religion stepped into the gap, something called “The Dark Ages”?

I appreciate the desire to have a Black & White approach to things that proclaims a level of certainty, but I have a degree in Biblical Studies from a conservative Evangelical University and pretending that it just comes down to a proper interpretation of the biblical texts to get us through our present troubles is delusional on the part of sincere believers and irresponsible on the part of scholars, who should know better that to lean on Neolithic documents to help us in our present troubles. I heard someone say that following biblical laws wasn’t too bad when most people died of childhood diseases, no one left their small communities, and thirty-five was old age. Hate to break it to y’all but things have changed.

Also, proof-texting from non-theologian government officials is bad enough (a la Sessions reading from Romans out of context!)… Tell you what, within your church community and small town, get your shit together so that you and your neighbors can attend the the same services without splintering into separate groups over any slight disagreement for more than a year and then we’ll talk about the need for prayer as part of our school-day or legislative process. Been there, done that. Sorry. You want to “fix” society, please feel free to lead by example. “They shall know that you follow me, by how you love one another.” Do that with all your brothers and sisters and then we’ll talk about how this fixes anything for the rest of us.