How is this happening in our modern context?

“As for science – the beauty of it is that it always mistrusts itself. It’s built in. That’s why science has theories and not truths.

“Religion, of course, has no such mechanism. It’s absolute, and thus both false and dangerous.” Barak Engel, one of my best friends and a published expert in the field of security for information systems.

Barak while not being a Christian has taught me much of what I understand on the mathematics of loving-kindness and the economy. He has helped me understand the principles in the teachings of Christ in ways that my Christian friends have not be able to do. Barak does not say this because he dislikes Christianity. He says this because of a natural flaw that he has observed in all organized religion and if we are to be honest we need to see it too.

It has been very hard for me to see the lack of questioning in my brand of Christianity. For one thing, even though I thought I was raised the same way as everyone else in my brand of religion I have discovered I was raised differently. I was raised to question the Biblical conclusion of others as well as the scientific studies taught in school and in time I learned to question my own conclusions. I was trained in the use of tools (“mechanisms”) that naturally assisted in the cross-checking of what was understood as religious truth. My mentors, from my mother to my teachers, instructed me that all knowledge needs to be questioned. They held up the idea that thinking for one’s self was not just a part of being a good human being; it was a part of being an honest Christian.

So some years ago when I embarked on what has now become my professional hobby – the effect of loving-kindness on the economy – I did so by crosschecking the common understandings on how the economy of heaven works. This is about the time I met Barak. As I interacted with him on matters of business I saw that he instinctually understood the very principles I was studying. So for Barak to have a significant impact on those studies says something about Barak. It also says there is a good reason to pay attention to what he has to say here, even if we do not see it as factual.

Why is it that it that Barak has observed that religion does “not have such mechanisms” when my childhood is proof that such “mechanisms” are available? Why? Are you sure you want to hear the why? Ok, here we go. Because the “mechanisms” that are used to secure the future of religious organizations are at odds with any “mechanism” that might question the doctrinal understands of such organizations. Let us say this another way. If the doctrinal conclusions of the organization can be questioned then the ability of the organization to raise money and membership can be impaired.

Wow!!!

While we may not want to admit this, it is basically true. It also means that the “mechanisms” of growth found in religious organizations are most likely not built on loving-kindness. It is impossible for the “mechanisms” of growth to be built on loving-kindness simply because it is impossible for loving-kindness to lead to the kind of dishonest growth such organization crave. Hence any mechanism that would lead us to the truth about loving-kindness is most likely at odds with the financial success of the religious organization that we belong to, period! I know that just goes against everything you have been taught about how your religion works. But this only proves the point. The mechanisms they used that taught us how we are to trust our religious leaders were not about truth but about health and growth of the church.

One simple question, are you allowed to use loving-kindness for others that are not like you as a reason to change the doctrinal understand of your church? Using loving-kindness means that you respect the truth that others have found about loving-kindness and learn from it in some way. It does not mean you agree with them but it does mean you do not talk trash about those you disagre with. So ask yourself which type of rhetoric do you hear each weekend, trash talk of other points of view or loving-kindness or someone trying to mix the two?

We also need to note that the doctrines (the scientific standards) of a scientific organization do not include previous findings or conclusions but simply the method of finding more accurate truth in the future. Could a religious organization do this? Yes, but only if the concepts of their ideas belong to humanity as a whole and not just to their membership. In addition, this means that religious structures would have to be willing to become irrelevant once their message has taken its course.

Can you follow this so far? If so, let us continue. If not please re-read or do some cross check of your owe and ask me questions. I promise if you are honestly searching, I will learn as much from you as you might learn from me. That is just how it works.

The cross-checking tools in regard to my religious beliefs became really important to me during my years in the local state university. In my studies, I needed to deal with some of the differences between my church’s Biblical understanding and my science classes. It also was important in regard to some of the different ideas going around my church at the time. I struggled with people that had to very different understandings on the words of Christ. I had to question what some believed to be absolute truth because the logic of some of their ideas were not consistent from one idea to the next. Their simple answer for this was, “God said it so I believe and my faith will save me.” The first problem was they had no idea if God said it or not because they did not know how to cross check the source of the information. Secondly, was it their faith that was guiding them or was it self-righteousness or just plain old laziness? What was really striking to me was their inability to question the absolutes they had been taught by someone else and their inability to ever really studied it for themselves.

So I need to stop assuming that Christians honestly cross check themselves on what they believe and you need to stop thinking that too. Let us take a serious look at what this might mean to us with some the issues we are dealing with this very month, October 2018.

Today, three decades after my college years, this inability of the Baby Boomers to study for themselves has borne fruit both inside my church and in the political systems in America. On the other hand I have progressed until I am an expert in my own right in the field of Data Analyst. Data Analyst is supposed to be a study of how we can use mass amounts of information from many sources in any field of study to assist that field of study to come to better conclusions. It has been said I am one of the best at what I do. I could make tons of money at this trade but instead, I have turned my focus on something far more important. Something of great value to all humans. It is like a calling for me. This calling is to find ways to use human skills, Big Data information, Best Practice ideas and Common Sense logic to build each other up economically – to build loving-kindness into the global community.

But his month I need to take a break from my calling and respond to two very destructive ideas that have been pushed as being Bible-based. One by the elected head of my church and another by a powerful department under the President of the United States. The first is that LGBT individuals must be thrown out of the church and anyone that does not throw them out must be thrown out too. The second is that gender is only male or female and that it is determined at birth and it has always been that way.

Some of you believe the Bible is just made up stories and I have no problem that. I do use the Bible in my search for truth and since the promoters of these ideas insist that the Bible is the truth and that they are using it correctly, then we will use the Bible. I am hoping that those of you who do not use the Bible as an authority will use other sources to cross check me to keep me honest. Because I believe, the Bible writers would want us to do that. I do not believe it is healthy to use only one source or to discredit a source because it disagrees with our primary source of information. Also, if a source is not completely accurate does not mean we have to throw it out, if we did that then we would be left with no source that we could use for anything. The best “mechanism” are those tools that allow us to compare information from many sources and find what is useful and what helps us to be better human beings. There is a lot in proven science on these two LGBT subjects that I will not use here but you can turn to this article and others to see what they say.

The “mechanisms” I would like to use here are what I would call the other side of the story and connecting the dots. These are both tools that are by design made to look for new understandings.

I would like to start with Matthew 19 verse 3 (NIV) and see what light it sheds on the two things that happened this month. I would like it if everyone did crosschecking as we go. We do not need to come to a single answer but let us try to see the reasonable ideas in this passage and let us open the door so others can then study these concepts for themselves.

Verse 3 “Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?’” They were trying to set a logical trap. Sounds a lot like many of the political pundits of today. They use illogical logic tools to trap people into agreeing with them. As a data analyst, I find this to be very evil but all of us have fallen for it. All of us have tried to do it to others.

Verse 4-6: “’Haven’t you read,’ [Jesus] replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator”made them male and female,” and said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’”

The Pharisees missed it. Why did they miss it? Data from the studies on human logic behavior tells that once our minds are set on a certain path we stick to that path no matter what gets in our way, even the truth. They were so fixed on the trap that they missed the content in the reply. I promise you, you have missed something this week because your brain was already fixed on a path it was going down.

This month there are American politicians so fixed on what Christ said here in this verse”the Creator ‘made them male and female,’” that they miss what he says just a few verses later and they miss the full understanding of this statement just as the Pharisees did. What did the Pharisees miss? This – “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” What the Bible joined together? No. What the High Priest or a marriage license/ceremony joined together? No. “What God …” the Creator joined together.

As we now know from science, the Pharisees were so focused on the trap that just continued to try and set the trap. Verse 7: “’Why then,’ they asked, ‘did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?’”

Jesus was always so patient with them but when they were not listening, he would turn a little blunt on them. Verse 8 and 9: “Jesus replied, ‘Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.’”

OK, this shut them up but I promise you they did not get it and we now see the disciple did not get it either. Sounds like the rest of us humans to me; whether the story is made up or not, does not really matter anymore because we can see standard human behavior in the dialog.

Verse 10: “The disciples said to him, ‘If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.’”

If we look carefully, we watch as Jesus changes the subject. He jumps form Marriage to Eunuchs. NO, no, no. We need to back up, this is where we are going to have to do a lot of cross-checking and questioning. Do Eunuchs and male to female marriage have anything to do with each other? What connection might have been there for the disciples? For us to see this we need to look at how their society looked at gender. For the disciples, Christ was completing the gender circle: Male, Female, and Eunuch. (More in this a little later in our story) Was gender types his point? No. So far, he is still on the point of what “God has joined together, let no one separate.” But the disciples did not ask the question they should have asked at this point which was, “How do we know what God joined together?” Basically, no one ever has ever asked that question in regard to this passage but for the issues that have come up this month, we need to ask it.

Back to the story, blunt again but patient “Jesus replied, ‘Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given.’” Now, which question did Jesus answer, the question the Disciples asked or the one they should have asked or both? Just for a minute read this and then reread it and pause. Not everyone can accept what God has joined together, but only those the joining has been given too. When God has joined something together how are we to judge whether God joined or not? If there is any truth here it is extremely powerful and must be questioned and re-questioned. What has God joined together for me? And if the joining is for someone else then how do I know or even have a clue as to whether God joined it together or not for that other person. We have now been left with a puzzle that must constantly be reviewed and there are no solid answers.

And Jesus makes it even more confusing by going off on a tangent or did he. Historical, scientific, and language studies are now bringing out that way people understood term male or man at the time of Jesus was not determined solely at birth but was confirmed at puberty and/or marriage. The definition of a male was not biological but sexual and paternal. For a guy to become a male, he had to have a drive or attraction to a gal. They based their determination of male on whether a gal makes the guy heat up and get hot – makes him have an erection. They believe the baby came from the male and was planted in the female. The believed the seed was complete when it left the male. And they believed that it was the heat that created the seed – again they believed the erection created the seed. The male made the gal a female when he planted his offspring inside her. This is very paternal thinking here. Mom and dad says to the boy you are not a man until you take this girl we bought for you and make us some grandchildren. I am taking this too far or am I, can see the paternal thinking here?

A Eunuch the researchers are finding was someone that was despised because he was born a boy but was not capable of becoming a man or was no longer a man. Being castrated is a Dark Ages definition of the term eunuch and not the primary meaning of the term during the time of the Bible writers. Jesus’s words give us more of what the term meant in His day.

There are 3 types of Eunuchs listed. The first type was not castrated. They are listed as “born that way.” Archeological/languages studies have confirmed that the reference here is to guys that were not born male meaning they did have male erections for the ladies but got erections for other men or for nothing at all. In many cases, they still had complete sexual function and even had kids. There are even discussions on how to tell them apart from the boys that would become males and those discussions were not about whether they had functioning testis or not. Some of it was about whether they were feminine or not. In modern times we would call most of these guys gay men.

The second type was castrated, most likely servants that the master wanted to make sure could not get the woman of the household pregnant. The mastersneed to know who the father was of all the children in the household. In most cases this did not stop the eunuchs from having sex and romantic relationships, it just stopped them from have children. In modern times they would not be castrated but many of them would still be attracted to men and what we again would call gay males.

The third type is also castrated. But with a twist. The King James says for “spiritual reason”. The NIV says “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” Really just start questioning everything that you have ever been taught. Jesus to answer the question “what has God joined together” and the question “is it better not to marry” just said that for spiritual, mental and or psychological health “there are those who choose” to be castrated so to change their gender from male to eunuch. Did you get that? For Spiritual reasons, some need to change their gender with a physical (medical) procedure. The only procedure of its type available in His day.

And Jesus is not done – the end of verse 12: “The one who can accept this should accept it.” But not all will be able to accept and those that cannot accept it need to butt out of the way. Jesus completes the gender circle and answering the question “What has God joined together” by saying that one side of the gender circle cannot understand what the other side of the gender circle needs to understand. Going a little farther: what is joined together by God on one side of the gender circle will not make sense to what is joined together on the other side of the gender circle. So “ Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

At this point, it seems the Bible writer changes to a new story and while we can conclude there is a connection between the two stories it is not the same conversation. Still, in the questioning mode let us look at a few quotes from the following verses

Verse 13 and 14: “ … the disciples rebuked them. … Do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Kind of like “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Verse 17: “There is only One who is good.”

Verse 21 and 22: “Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect,… Then come, follow me.’ … He went away sad.” He wanted to be perfect to God but he did not want to follow God, sounds like American Christians and the way they treat threat their LGBT Christian brothers, they do not want to follow God on this one.

Verse 23 to 26: “Jesus said …, ‘Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. … It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ … Hearing this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” Here Jesus goes a step further, by saying only God can join things together that will help man to be saved.

Verse 30: “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”

Here is the other side of the story. Jesus, not just any Bible character but Jesus himself completes the gender wheel with 3 genders. You can argue over what the third gender is and its different types but they are not male or female and some them go through a physical procedure to change their gender from male to eunuch of their own free choice. This stands in direct conflict with those working for the President of the United States. So for whatever reason, the Executive Branch is doing what it is doing, it has nothing to do with an honest use of the Bible as every seems to think.

Also, I hope you connected a few dots along the way and while we will never come to the same conclusion we can still find hope in the fact that Jesus says we may never understand each other. I think this is enough for my church’s leadership to connect the dots and to stop trying to throw out what they cannot understand. Acts 8 seems to say very directly when it comes to eunuchs, that other gender that is not heterosexual male, if they believe on Jesus, then just baptize them and leave the rest to the Spirit. So I have concluded that honest modern science on the subject of gender and honest Bible does not have to be at odds with each other just as the Pharisees did not have to be at odds with Christ.

For those in the LGBT community that have been thrown out of their churches there is this passage:

Isaiah 56 4 to 7 (KJV): “ For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;

Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” For all genders: Eunuchs, LGBT, Sons, Male, Daughters, and Female; all genders; all people. Praise God.