Letter writer: The pitfalls of biblical cherry-picking

Graphic by Lori Deaton

I enjoyed Dale Neal’s cover story on local religious leaders and their reactions to the presidential election [“Keeping the Faith: Asheville Clergy Offer Wisdom in Election Aftermath,” Dec. 7, Xpress]. It was thorough and fair. Mostly he let his subjects speak for themselves.

I have got to point out to the folks who called for “biblical values” on Election Day that the Bible doesn’t much like elections in the first place. Elections are something those heathen Greeks and Romans do. If you want a king (1 Samuel 10:20-24) or a new member of the apostles (Acts 1:23-26), you throw dice. Really. Literally. God will load the dice for you.

Relax, I’m not actually advocating that as the way to elect a president. I’m pointing out that cherry-picking your passages from the Bible is an exegetical method that sooner or later will bite you in the ass.

Oh, and while I’m on my feet, one other thing — assuming that God hates the same people you do is pretty nasty theology.  Franklin, I’m looking at you.

— Preston Woodruff
Brevard

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9 thoughts on “Letter writer: The pitfalls of biblical cherry-picking

    • boatrocker

      Biblical Cherry Picking ™, how right wing demagouges, American slave owners, anti suffragettes, anti civil rights, The Moral Majority, anti human rights in general have won over rural uninformed rubes for centuries.
      Ask your doctor if Biblical Cherry Picking ™ is right for you and your on the go fact and conscience-free lifestyle.

      • Lulz

        LOL, out of touch you are. If you can’t comprehend that shipping jobs overseas, low wages, illegals, the ACA, and a declining quality of life as the main cause, there’s simply no help for you. Again, continue to vilify mainly blue collar whites with ignorant labels. You’re elitism shows. But then again you’ve never held a real job in your entire life. It’s indicative of the political left especially in Asheville.

        • boatrocker

          I like how Lulz has access to every poster’s employment history, level of education, tax returns and even shoe size in order to constantly
          ‘preach’ the gospel of St. LOL.

  1. NFB

    “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” — Anne Lamott

    • Lulz

      LOL, but many don’t realize is that God is pro choice yet many that He isn’t. See, He gives you the choice to live by His words or not. What we are seeing now though is His words being twisted in order to fit actions and behaviors as to FEEL inclusive. Or political narratives and persecution reserved mainly towards whites.

      • boatrocker

        You’re talking about that god character like it’s a real thing again instead of bunch of fairy tales lifted from the other prominent belief systems that existed during the Bronze Age.

  2. dyfed

    “The Bible doesn’t much like elections in the first place”… Citation needed. The Bible has nothing to say about it.

    The anointing of a king of Israel occurs in the Bible at the initiative of the Israelites themselves, and the apostles are not secular leaders at all and thus chosen by God; however, if you naively take simple descriptive stories from the Bible as prescriptive lessons (which is, theologically, a bad idea) then it should be pointed out that it is taken for granted that the Church directs itself through representative ecumenical councils… Let us not even mention, perhaps, the fact that the elders who guide a church are chosen by the body of the church. Sounds suspiciously like a republic.

    So yeah, tell me a little more about cherry-picking.

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