There is a parody web site called godhatesshrimp.com which I remember seeing before linked on Instapundit and I have seen it linked to on other sites. It contains the photoshopped image of protesters holding a sign that says God Hates Shrimp with a couple of Bible verses from Leviticus and Deuteronomy also on it.
Leviticus 11:9-12 says: 9 These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.
And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
11 They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you
The whole point is to show how stupid Christians are to use verses from the Levitical law to defend against homosexuality. When these laws also outlaw many other things we have no problem with. Now we are supposed to see this alleged hypocrisy and immediately embrace homosexually behavior being that we were just so dumb before. Like some Fundamentalists who take out one verse in exclusion to others or lack a proper understanding of the differences between Mosaic dietary laws and the natural law. Fundamentalist atheists do likewise.
Sometimes a Protestant Fundamentalist will argue against the Catholic and historic understanding of the Eucharist by using the Old Testament strictures against eating blood. If they were right this would prove too much and we would also have to start sacrificing to animals and following the other dietary and clothing laws contained in the Mosaic law.
Conversely if the Atheist Fundamentalist were right then we could kill them or steal from them or commit adultery with their wives. If the Mosaic law can be dismissed than by their argument the Ten Commandments must also be dismissed. I doubt they would go along with this reasoning.
These arguments show a total lack of understanding and they are akin to someone saying the world can’t be spinning or else we would fly off.
God used many of the Levitical ordinances not as moral absolutes but as a means to set the Jewish people apart from those around them. These laws were specifically made to prevent them from following countries around them and falling into pagan idolatry. In many cases the animals they were ordered to sacrifice were the ones that other cultures worshiped. As Scott Hahn had mentioned this was like God ordering an alcoholic to everyday pour down the contents of a whiskey bottle down the drain. With the coming of the Church, the new wine skin, these dietary and clothing laws were removed. But the Natural Law remains. When Jesus was asked “What must I do to be perfect?” his answer was “Follow the Commandments.”
I was also a Fundamentalist Atheist at one time. I remember telling my Mother when I was a teenager that a Crucifix was idolatry. I thought I had vast Bible knowledge even though I had never read the Bible. I knew this was a perfect gotcha line that should have made the Catholic Church collapse in it’s hypocrisy. I was not surprised to find after my conversion that some Fundamentalist Protestants used the same reasoning.
Tom of A Thing Worth Doing also had some thoughts along this line, which is partly what lead me to write this post.
Update: The Curmudgeonly Clerk has some good thoughts on biblical criticism of this sort.
6 comments
you really ought to check out the whole foo-fooraw by the blawging community–started by Ambivalent Imbroglio (mowabb.com/ai), torn apart by Three Years of Hell (threeyearsofhell.com), further shredded by Heidi (blog.qiken.org), before finally being all dismissed by the Curmudgeonly Clerk (www.curmudgeonlyclerk.com) on this same topic.
Thanks for the references Katherine,
They all were good and the Curmudgeonly Clerk had some very cogent remarks on this.
Good post Jeff. I’m always amused by the fundy athiests (like James Randi!) that get that smile on their face when they think they showed these stupid Christians to be utterly hypocritical.
Funny though, how they never go after the people that are still SUPPOSED to told Levitical laws: the Jews. Doing that will be anti-Semitic, of course, and is tabboo! Making fun of Christians = humorous and proper. Making fun of Jews = anti-Semitic and wrong!
Pastor Richard Hall at connexions, and I have been having a conversation about this very thing. Thanks for your remarks.
Perhaps it has something to do with Anya’s (on BVTS) comments on a parallel universe where there are no shrimp.
Intersting comments.
But I must protest when you assign an intent to the site, as the creator of the original photoshop’d image.
Note that the image that was photoshopped was an image of KKK protestors, who demonstrably believe that Leviticus was a reasonable basis for their beliefs against homosexuality, using the same language that the Bible uses, in the same context, to prohibit the eating of shellfish. Those folks are in fact being inconsistent with their source material, and deserve the mocking they recieve.
As it turns out, I was quite aware of the irony involved. Had I intended to make a theological attack on homophobia in Christianity, I would have made a far different argument. Leviticus would have been thrown aside by the very arguments you use above, whereas Romans and Corinthians would have suffered a more vigrorous attack on the poor scholarship involved the translation from the Greek of “malakos”, etc.
But it’s late, and I’m really not that interested in an unpaid teaching position. Don’t make me get out my Greek dictionaries.
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