Johnny,
Just looked at your post quickly, you have obviously failed to understand period and context. These are the basis of Israels national code of behaviour placed in the negative. As it is only when identifying the negative that an act of violation can be identified.
Jesus summs up the laws of Israel in the positive by Love and devotion of the holy character [God] and love and respect of neighbour. To be continued!

Welllllll... there is so much work to be done here.. to demythologize all that :) from CJ, Opinionated and others... but speaking of work..I have loads to catch up on myself.. so this might be a bit brief.

Opinionated said:

3. And you ignore so many of Jesus teachings because you want to vote for Howard. I love flexible Christian morality... Ha!

err...where did you get THAT idea ? You should see my views on the thread
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6514#96418

CJ must have been so busy sticking pins into his little BOAZ doll/efigy he forgot how to spell :)

"METAPHORICALLY" says Perilous our ever vigilant 'Boaz Buster' :)

No Pericles... I mentioned 'anthropomorphic language' as being one aspect of the issue.. there were so many quotes there that it's not possible to address them all.
One with as much knowledge of pedantry as you should not need to be convinced that there are sound principles of interpretation which must be applied to any document.
1+1=2 is pretty clear "Mathamatical formula expressing the outcome of adding two separate entities together"

'Love the Lord your God'...is of that level. "Gouge out your eye" is of a different kind, definitely metaphorical. "The believers must respect their parents" is of the 1+1=2 type.. "The believers can have sex with their slave girls" is ALSO of that type..

"The believers shall occupy themselves with Joyful things" regarding paradise, is metaphorical. Interpreted by Ibn Katheer as "deflowering virgins"

Knock knock..is there a brain in that head of yours?

"The Lords nostrils"...= anthropomorphic.

So..Opinionated.. just by way of conclusion. Your attack on me about 'you just want a vote for Howard'...while not accurate, is nevertheless an expression of your OWN position....right ?
Hence..your readers might be forgiven for seeing your biblical quotes as a cheap 'vote getting' exercise for a particular party.

EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN.... If they have ACTUALLY broken any laws.. as opposed to just 'annoying' Labor supporters..then chuck them in the slammer.. nothing more to say about that.

JOHNNY ROTTEN

mate.. you said:

"A shame that a simple “be kind to one another” couldn’t have it into the set."

Please..PLEASE read the Gospel of Mark
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=48&chapter=1&version=31

.. where you will find...THIS.

Ch 12:28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'There is no commandment greater than these."

Don't you realize that those 10 commandments were actually ABOUT the very thing you spoke ? But Jesus actually spells it out.

He said also

28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

AMENNNN 2 that ! When you discover this... you will have discovered life :)

blessings

Now you are just plain inventing stuff Boaz.

>>"METAPHORICALLY" says Perilous our ever vigilant 'Boaz Buster' :) No Pericles... I mentioned 'anthropomorphic language'<<

Is this a comment on something I said in another thread, Boaz? 'Cos it didn't come from this one.

But, if I had made such an observation - and I wouldn't put it past me to do just that - this is hardly a credible response:

>>1+1=2 is pretty clear "Mathamatical formula expressing the outcome of adding two separate entities together" 'Love the Lord your God'...is of that level. "Gouge out your eye" is of a different kind, definitely metaphorical. "The believers must respect their parents" is of the 1+1=2 type.. "The believers can have sex with their slave girls" is ALSO of that type.

Sorry, but this is completely unconvincing.

None of these comes even close to a "1+1=2" position. Mathematics - at this level at least - is designed to be precise and immutable, but more than that, cannot be formulated as a command or instruction.

You even stated it yourself - "the outcome of adding two separate entities together". If all you need is two entities, then you and your eye (available for gouging) are equally valid as believers and parents (available for respect).

If you are going to attempt analogies, I'd suggest you need some practice - this one simply doesn't fly.

But even if we ignore the absence of logic, and simply concentrate on your conclusions, they don't stack up either.

You were attempting to explain that "'The believers must respect their parents' is of the [factual] type.. 'The believers can have sex with their slave girls' is ALSO of that type."

But beyond your opinion, what evidence do you offer?

>>Knock knock..is there a brain in that head of yours?<<

Yes indeed there is, Boaz. And in stark contrast to yourself, I am actually using mine.

And if you do really want to get stuck into something, try runner's theory that all Christians are liars. That should keep you busy for a while.

David Boaz ... thanks for your reply.

I apologise for presuming you were a John Howard toting right wing fundy. I have no political allegiances. I don't like any of them!

But also I think that people who have voted one way all their life are anti-democracy. I can never believe that someone has never been upset enough with a Govt to want to change their vote at least once! Wars, lies, unethical behaviour, greed ... nothing has ever caused them to change their vote. Amazing!

Democracy is always undervalued when it is described as "You get the chance to vote". Many countries have a vote ... and many democracies have rigged votes... Yep even good ol' US of A http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03EED91F3AF936A25751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

The strength of a democracy is when "people of good will vote against the party they normally would vote for because they see too many lies and dishonest activities" An even stronger Democracy is where people are "totally not aligned and vote with absolute conscience" ...

I do not refer to myself as Christian but I certainly believe that the "religious right" is giving Christians a very bad name. In fact I would go as far as saying they could be the greatest threat to democracy in the future as they no longer vote with "conscience".

They have doctrine driven biases usually based on misguided interpretations of the Bible. An interesting word that "interpretation ". If it is Gods word... You aren't entitled to interpret it... Christians have to just accept it as "The Truth"!

So then getting back to the fundamentals outlined in it.. proven liars have to be voted out.

If we are involved in an illegal war... Thou shalt not murder applies

If we use false evidence in parliament ... Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor applies

If we lie because someone wants oil ... Thou shalt not covet anything that belongs to thy neighbor applies

If we talk about aborigines and our taking of Australia ... Thou shalt not steal applies

There is no room for flexible morals!

Hi Opinionated....that was a much more palatable post :)

You said:

"I do not refer to myself as Christian but I certainly believe that the "religious right" is giving Christians a very bad name"

the "Lords Resistance Army" of nothern Uganda has not helped either :) but we need to examine...

LRA.. a close inpsection of that mob reveals that Joseph Coney is a spiritist....not a Christian.. he makes reference to the Commandments..but thats about it. He gets his 'guidance' from 'spirits'.

Christian Right ... interesting term. I don't think there is an automatic connection between 'Christian' and 'right' although on many issues Christians would be quite conservative over values.

I've just sent an email to my local Liberal member explaining:

"Remember when I wrote about using your Senate and HR majority to STOP the flow of xxx rated Porn from ACT to the rest of Australia"?

Then..I reminded him of the answer I got from Philip Ruddock... "We believe adult Australians have a right to decide what they view"

EXCEPT of course..if they happen to be an indigenous community in self destruct close to an ELECTION...... oh..THEN..we can pull the plug on them getting access to it.

Well... my values are firmly founded on Christ..and 'lust' is not one of His...so pandering to it is OFF my list of priorities.

You can fully expect a not too suttle reminder in a couple of posts from CJ and Perilous using the last sentence as the hook and then me being berated for 'hate speech' :) but that goes with the territory.

INTERPRETATION.. is really not that hard...and is based on very simple principles. I totally agree that many Christian denominations have placed undue emphasis on some aspects of doctrine.. Church of Christ comes to mind over 'Baptism' (you need to sus that out to know what I'm on about)
But Hitler clearly got it wrong when he used the cleansing of the temple to justify exterminating millions of Jews.
-"Jesus chased the 'Jews' out of the temple"....
-"We must follow his example"....
Where did he go wrong there ? :)