“Scott Lively is a noted anti-gay activist and the president of Abiding Truth Ministries, a conservative Christian organization located in Temecula, California. Abiding Truth Ministries is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Lively has called for the criminalization of “the public advocacy of homosexuality” as far back as 2007. He is also directly linked to pending Anti-Gay Legislation in Uganda that would, if passed, make homosexuality punishable by a lengthy prison sentence or even death (Source: Wikipedia).”
I challenged Scott Lively of Defending the Family (12/5/2009) to a discussion on his views after hearing about him on the Rachel Maddow show. After several email exchanges, we chatted with each other. We discussed our individual interpretations of being a Christian activist. I posed to him that the doctrine of Sola Scriptura has no biblical basis in fact. I explained to him that until he studies the scriptures in the original Aramaic and Koine Greek that his understanding is based on the Latin to English translations. I also pointed out to him that he was neglecting to take into account the cultural and geographic idioms of the times in which the scripture was written.
He accused me of “cherry picking” Bible verses. I pointed out to him that he was “cherry picking” Paul’s assessment of homosexuals and using it as a bat to beat up living and breathing individuals who choose to love one another. I asked him where in the Bible does it state that he was to appoint himself to judge others and interfere in whom they choose to love?
Mr. Lively accused me of gerrymandering a personal theology by stringing together random verses. He claimed that you can only understand the Biblical principles involved by taking Scripture as a whole and finding how an idea in one verse fits in the entire constellation of ideas that God presents to us in His word. Funny, that’s what most of his evangelical camp does by prancing around spewing Bible verses without any context at all. My understandings have come from many years of intense study and in dealing personally with many individuals who sincerely love one another.
He repeatedly tried to diffuse my organization and compilation of the scriptures by chipping away at the cornerstone of my indisputable evidence. I explained to him that I have spent 50 of my 55 years studying the scriptures in depth and have found no evidence in the word declaring that he should go to another person’s country and impose his doctrine on other; especially when it resulted in putting innocent people to death for being whom God created them to be. I pointed out to him that I continued my studies of the Biblical scriptures after graduating from seminary school and repeatedly encountered misinterpretations and misunderstandings in the interpretations of many evangelical preachers. I proposed to him that his entire constellation had holes in it because his basis of understanding was tainted by his own personal agenda of self-righteous indignation. He refused to hear it.
Mr. Lively states that to be a Christian is to acknowledge that Jesus is God. He assumed I agreed with this most fundamental of presuppositions. I do agree but I take it a step further. I explained to him that we are God’s children. Jesus came here to show us what we could do. He ALWAYS pointed to the Father. He told us we could do what he did and GREATER! Mr. Lively seemed to have forgotten about those verses.
Scott Lively then goes on to say that if Jesus is God, the he is personally responsible for all of the "hateful" and "violent" acts of the Old Testament that he claims I want to excise from the Bible, as well as the implementation of capital punishment on the Israelites. He claims that our job as believers in Christ is to understand how to reconcile the fact that the God of Love is also the God of Wrath; the Lamb of God is also the Lion of Judah.
My response to him was, Bull! Where in the name of God does he get this B.S.? If he had half an ounce of intelligence and a critical eye he would realize that from the Aramaic translations of the Old Testament into the Torah that God was referred to as God of Love. Perception of being punished is a result of an unenlightened mind and people that were unsure of their God and feared Him instead of respecting Him.
He then claimed that I have rooted myself in a simplistic view of Scripture and that people that believe as I do are misrepresenting Jesus into (as one pastor recently observed) "a gay hippie in a dress," emasculated and Gandhi-esque. This guy is a true piece of work! How judgmental and discriminatory can you get?
If he thinks that God is only in his camp alone than he is a simpleton and truly fooling himself. Gandhi had more spirituality in his little finger than he has had in his whole life. His protracted view of himself and his constituency is a house of cards that with the slightest breath of truth will crumble. I asked him why evangelical groups like Conservapedia are trying to re-write the Bible into seeing Jesus as a machismo "Wall Street broker in a suit?" He denied my interpretation of the "judge not" verse that Jesus said could not be reconciled with the rest of God's word and accused me of holding a double standard by granting myself the right to judge and condemn him and denying him the right to condemn homosexuality.
I never denied him the right to condemn anything. The only thing I pointed out to him was that he was going beyond condemnation when he helped carve legislation to put those to death who were being who they were created to be. God did not appoint him to interfere in the lives of those who were living the love in their hearts in the way they were created to be. Did Mr. Lively condemn Jesus for not having relations or marrying? Hardly. Only to those who he ‘believed’ were contrary to his beliefs. Bigotry comes in many forms. Not once did Jesus ever tell anyone to go to another village and seek out the leaders to condemn and put homosexuals to death like Scott Lively has done in Uganda. If you want to read more of the debate please click here.
