Biblical Misinterpretations

As a Christian, the one thing that bothers me a lot is Biblical Literalism, for a number of reasons. For instance, the people who like to think that Creationism is fact because of the book of Genesis. The problem there becomes which creation does one believe as fact: Genesis 1, Genesis  2, Proverbs 8, or John 1. Another problem I have with Biblical literalism is when people use it as justification for homophobic rhetoric or teaching that queerness is an “abomination” (I will get to the ancient Hebrew understanding of that word in a subsequent post).
For years, this was a huge part of my struggle in accepting my sexuality because I had allowed Biblical literalism to pervade my understanding on sexuality. However, in more recent months, when people try to say, “Well the Bible says this about (insert ANY topic),” I often reply, “No, that is how the Bible reads; what does the Bible say?” Of course, I get very confused looks and then try to explain what the Bible is. In order to interpret what the Bible is saying according to how it reads, one must devote a great deal of time to understanding each nuanced aspect of the Bible. The Bible is not merely a single book; the Bible is a collection of books, a library as the name indicates. When we walk into a library, we know that we are dealing with a collection of books, each written in different circumstances, by different authors, with varying agendas, from all corers of the earth and all with a unique background. The Bible is no different. The Bible is a cannon of writings that were developed over a course of around 5,000 years, from all over the Mediterranean, and from various points in human, Jewish, and Christian history. This adds to the richness and flavor of every Bible passage; it is, in my opinion, what makes the Bible the most exciting and evolving collection of books.
The purpose, then, of this series of blog posts that I am titling “Biblical Misinterpretations,” is to help shed light onto some of the most common Biblical passages used to justify teachings against homosexuality. I will use a variety of methods in helping to translate what the Bible is saying as well as laying down some of the background for the culture at the time a given passage was written. That being said, here is my disclaimer: I am by no means a Biblical scholar nor am I claiming to be any sort of authority on what is written. Anything that I am writing is gathered from various scholars as well as from the extensive footnotes and background information in my collegiate study Bible. The thing that I ask you all to keep in mind while reading from this series of posts is a simple quote: Everything in the Bible is True. Not everything happened.