Shortening the Bible, Romans 1 1-32 in need of integrity and sex-positive rewrite

[Trillo]

I was once asked here in the Religion forum to suggest edits to shorten the bible, so here is one. This came to my attention from reading the NBC linked PDF of the Nebraska woman who filed a lawsuit against all homosexuals. It took me some time to find the version she quoted, it is from the King James version. She specifically referred to Romans 1 24, which I strike as a misleading teaching.

"24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:"

copy and paste source: https://www.biblegateway.com/

it Should be rewritten to

[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:lightgreen;border-radius:10pt;"]Wherefore Nature gave you hearts which also feel compatibilities and attractions above and beyond their physical beats, when these are found and mutually felt, consent and honor your bodies together as one flesh.

Strike all other Romans 1 paragraphs as irrelevant, extraneous, too long, and essentially unneeded.

[msongs]

1. "In the beginning..." 3 words ought to do it, the rest are superfluous nt

[Trillo]

13. It's one way to approach it.

However, it doesn't correct the "lusts of the heart" as "unclean" as a false and harmful teaching. "Lusts of the heart," in part, make life worth living.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Until we actually find some Klingons, it's just one heart. Not plural.

Also, it's not magic, it's just a fluid pump.

[trotsky]

3. Time Lords have two hearts.

Klingons only have one, but it has eight chambers.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. Damn. I'll just... go turn in my nerd credentials.

[Lordquinton]

9. Centauri have two hearts

Waiting for the day they finally contact us.

[struggle4progress]

5. Attitudes towards the sexual norms of Roman culture probably varied according

to position in society. Rome was quite sexist and without much caste mobility: moreover, the Empire relied on wars of conquest and slavery

Sexuality in Ancient Rome
In Rome, a woman had no legal identity other than as a man’s daughter or wife, entirely subjected first to her father and then to her husband ... In particular, it was socially acceptable and even expected for freeborn men to have extramarital sex with both female and male partners, especially adolescents, provided they (1) exercised moderation, (2) adopted the dominating role, and (3) confined their activities to slaves and prostitutes or, less commonly, a concubine or ‘kept woman’. As the property of another freeborn man, married or marriageable women and young male citizens were strictly off-limits ... Slaves were regarded as property, and lacked the legal standing that protected a citizen’s body. A freeman who forced a slave into having sex could not be charged with rape, but only under laws relating to property damage, and then only by the slave’s owner. Prostitution was both legal and tolerated, and common, often in brothels or in the fornices (arcade dens) under the arches of the circus. Most prostitutes were slaves or freedwomen. By becoming a prostitute, a freeborn person suffered infamia (loss of esteem or reputation) and became an infamis, losing her or his social and legal standing. Other occupations to suffer from infamia—a concept that still retains some currency in the Roman Catholic Church—included not only pimps but also entertainers such as actors and dancers, and gladiators. Members of these groups, which had in common the pleasuring of others, could be subjected to violence and even killed with relative impunity

Slavery & Sexual Exploitation
Most slaves were war captives, sold as property to the Roman citizenry. A slave of Rome had absolutely no rights and was utterly at the mercy of his/her master (a situation known as 'dominica potestas'), who could use them for sexual gratification and have them flogged or killed as they pleased

[Trillo]

6. Thank you for an interesting reply.

The title of the chapter obviously needs revision as well. Maybe it should be retitled, "Love", as mere casual sex with another doesn't do quite the same thing to the heart.

I'm not a lawyer, but it would be interesting to know if that can be used by the judge to invalidate that particular numbered item of hers, that Drishell (IIRC) was trying to apply Roman law to U.S. law. It was clear from her lawsuit that she considered it law to be followed in the U.S. and in the state of Nebraska, now. Knowing what I do of bible believers, I don't think that most of them consider that those chapters were written for a particular audience in a historical setting, but rather rules to live their lives by, today.

[cbayer]

7. I'm not sure about a re-write, but I sure like what you wrote.

It's lovely.

[Trillo]

12. Thank you.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. hearts don't feel anything.

our brains experience all the feelings we have.

[Trillo]

11. It's consciousness that does the experiencing.

The brain's neurons are just a series of fancy switches with multiple inputs and outputs.

[Warren Stupidity]

15. ok but it is pretty clear that consciousness is a brain function not a heart function.

So while you are re-writing the bible you might want to eliminate the circa 300 CE biology.

[Trillo]

16. But then the message between the lines would have been lost.

Let me spell it out for you: Lusts of the heart are not bad.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. hearts don't lust.

[Trillo]

19. That is true.

[trotsky]

20. So help me understand.

One of the things about the bible that has caused so many problems over the years is its ambiguity.

You propose "rewriting" parts of it, but want to keep the freaking ambiguity?

I don't get it. Why not just have a one-sentence bible: "Don't be an asshole." If every Christian then followed the bible, it would be the most wonderful religion on earth.

[nil desperandum]

17. Hey now

just because we're non-believers doesn't mean we have to be killjoys regarding romanticism as well...affairs of the "heart" inspired many a great piece of literature.

[LostOne4Ever]

10. If you are gonna rewrite the Bible...

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]Just remove everything save Matthew 7.

Okay, maybe keep some of the songs of Solomon. Erotic Poetry deserves a place in every holy book.[/font]

[Trillo]

14. I was limiting it to that which "jumped off the page" in Drishell's lawsuit.