Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. It seems there is a near-universal interest in my explaining why I left the church, despite decades of Bible study/ attending classes at seminary. It will take me a while to write up. In the meantime, a short bit on how conservative evangelicals have perverted the Bible..

2...this is going to be one example. Start with the fundamental (non-Biblical) belief: That God wrote the Bible or guided the hands of those who wrote the Bible. The Bible - the sole potential source for this - says no such thing. That's because it was proclaimed gospel 600 yrs..

3...after Jesus. (Or time between the Pilgrims and now.) BUT, assuming this belief is a real "belief" - then the words of the Bible are the words of God, right? Unfortunately, the "religious" keep changing those words - without disclosing it - to fit their beliefs...

4...let's just follow one line in the Bible and watch how the conservative evangelicals transformed their personal hatreds into the word of God. This is from 1 Timothy - which is widely believed to be a forgery - and as close as we can get to as-written, it says this:

5...now, this is one of the "hate homosexuals" sections of the Bible. Of course, there is no Greek (actually the language is called kone) word for that. When this was translated into Latin, it became this:

6...when translating this into English, those who put together the King James Bible found a discrepancy between 1 Timothy 1 between Latin and Kone. So they went with the Latin and said this in English:

7...now, keep an eye on "them that defile themselves with mankind." What does this mean? Open for debate. At that time, women are part of mankind. And what does defile mean? Rather than struggle with that, American evangelical Bibles just make up a translation....

8...remember - the word homosexual did not exist until the late 19th century. Yet, the readers of these Bibles believe that God - since the bible is his word - literally condemned homosexuals by that word....

The Living Bible....

9...the New American Standard Bible...

10....teh New International Bible....

11...so, essentially, evangelicals believed that God - who they say wrote the Bible - needed help, that he couldn't use the words that of course he meant. They CHANGED the Bible to fit their interpretation, thus justifying their hatred.

When you have a religious leadership....

12...that revises translations from sacred texts, youre dealing with frauds. Also notice one thing that stands out in EVERY translation: The section they take as condemning homosexuality (even though it doesnt say that) CLEARLY condemns liars.

But they consider Trump to be holy