God, politics, and a national park in Mississippi

There was an opinion in the L.A. Times by a man who argued that the difference between liberal and conservative Christians and Jews was that the conservatives actually believe that the bible is the word of G_d, and the liberals see the text as the opinions of man. Framing the interpretation of the bible this way seemed to pin liberals as "relativists" and conservatives as "purists."

The ridiculous thing is, if you really believe that the bible is purely the word of G_d, G_d is schizophrenic. Anyone who pulls "G_d's word" from the bible has to accept some things, and reject others, or else they are inherently contradicting themselves.

If you really believe that the bible teaches us pure knowledge about G_d, which would be "God's word," I believe that we underestimate the power and might of G_d, and overestimate our ability to understand G_d.

Lately, quite simply, I see conservatives using parts of the bible to justify selfishness, rigid control of individuals, and greed, while I see liberals hesitating to "use" the bible to justify a liberal agenda that is actually better for families' health and well-being, but we could, with equal claims on parts of the text, and in my mind, a much closer leaning toward Jesus' teachings.

As my husband often asks, "Why do so many Christians use the Jewish bible (to Christians, the "Old Testament") to justify conservative views, when the Christian bible basically was a type of reform of the older views?"

Even if we just use the Jewish bible alone to make a case for politics today, G_d's first covenant with life on earth was not just reserved for human beings, that covenant was with ALL life on earth. If this was G_d's word, it strongly argues that animals and other forms of life are of extreme value to him. And in both Christian and Jewish religions, people are considered G_d's hands, so we help maintain G_d's covenant with the earth. Therefore, one could argue that the conservative idea that G_d will repair whatever ever damage humans wage on nature, in a biblical sense, is an abuse of the human role within the covenant G_d has in this world.

If you haven't heard, and I doubt that CNN has covered it, Bush and Co. have given the mineral rights of a national park on the coast of Mississippi to the state. The state will now allow private oil and gas companies to drill inside a national nature preserve, a tax-payer owned property, and one with the biggest concentrations of bottle-nose dolphins in the world, among other formerly protected wildlife.

If Bush had ever been in charge of Eden he'd have been dreaming about how to export and exploit its treasures for money and comfort.

Peace