I recently stumbled upon a t-shirt that belonged to the merchandise range of the Christian website "Youth Not Ashamed" (click here to view it).
First lets all turn a blind eye to the fact that this heavenly and altruistic cause runs like a business by selling merchandise, because we’ve all seen it before.
I’ve no reason to object to this website/organisation more than any other one similar. What sparked my interest was their slogan. It’s printed on their t-shirts, and it’s the first thing you see when you go to the website. It reads:
NOT ASHAMED OF JESUS
NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL
NOT ASHAMED TO LIVE IT
I could understand why they weren’t ashamed of Jesus, he didn't really cause that much trouble, but I couldn’t understand why they weren’t ashamed of the gospel.
Dictionary.com defines the gospel as “the teachings of Jesus and the apostles; the Christian revelation.”
So we’re talking about the bible here. With my new found curiosity I decided to email the guy behind this organisation.
My email was as follows:
Your website talks about not being ashamed of the gospel. I am wondering
if you are ashamed of passages like the following which are found in the aforementioned gospel:
"However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way."
(Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)
"The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will die at birth or perish in the womb or never even be conceived. Even if your children do survive to grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone. I have watched Israel become as beautiful and pleasant as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children to be slaughtered." O LORD, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don't give birth and breasts that give no milk. The LORD says, "All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I
will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels. The people of Israel are stricken. Their roots are dried up; they will bear no more fruit. And if they give birth, I will slaughter their beloved children."
(Hosea 9:11-16 NLT)
“If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her." (Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT)
"Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel." (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)
"They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great,
whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)"
These are just a few of the passages that I find difficult not to be ashamed of. I was interested to hear what you thought about them.
Now I am not a man of God, but if could ever be swayed in that direction I’d first need to clear in my head the fact that God seems to be vengeful, evil and unforgiving with an appetite for suffering of the worst order.
The reply I got to my email was not unexpected. See below:
Hey xxx,
Some good thoughts there and to keep the conversation going what would be your take in the context of Paul writing in Romans 1:16, some questions to ask would be...
Why is Paul not ashamed? Maybe there is a different take on what you have said in the context of the verses you have quoted. Have you read any Bible commentaries talking about the verses you have selected as maybe this is an opportunity to learn more about Gods Word for you in going deeper than what just appears...
Bless ya heaps and take care,
Andrew Whitehead
To help you out here, Romans 1:16 reads:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”
I did my best to “keep the conversation going” by replying with the email below:
Paul is not ashamed possibly because his bookmark skipped Deuteronomy, and what does he have to worry about? It says he has faith in god’s power to save all who believe. He's probably equally sure of gods ability to smite those who don't believe.. like the Egyptians. He really did a number on them.
Your entire argument seems to be that I took the passages out of context.
Let's look at one in particular:
Deuteronomy 21:10: -Laws, rules and warnings as given by god through Moses.
When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, 21:11 And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; 21:12 Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; 21:13 and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. 21:14 and it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.
Humbled her, meaning rape of course. Let's run through that again..
1. You win a battle and take a woman as a prize
2. She must shave her head and cut her fingernails and change clothes
3. She can mourn her parents for a month
4. Once she's finished mourning, marry her
5. You can let her go when you're finished
6. You can’t sell her or treat her as a slave because you had sex with her
I'm wondering how that can be taken out of context.
You often see parts of the bible quoted that are full of love or kindness, such as the following on your
website:
Peace I leave you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27
If you're not ashamed of the bible, why not quote the aforementioned passage from Deuteronomy instead?
Just some thoughts.
Bless you
Sadly Andrew had no interest in continuing the conversation after that email, despite me contacting him again for a reply. My challenge to him is to quote any one of the passages from my emails on his website, then I will consider taking this page down. Until then, I can’t be sure that there are not passages in the Gospel that aren’t to be ashamed of.
You’ll notice hundreds of cutesy passages from the bible quoted in books, websites, on t-shirts and in church sermons. John and Romans are conveniently from the New Testament which the evangelicals love, they tend to ignore that the good book has an old testament that reads like Charles Manson’s wet dream diaries.
I put this question of whether it is right not to be ashamed in a clear, unbiased and non confrontational way. The reply I got was the standard issue kindergarten rubbish you always get along the lines of “you’ve misunderstood it” and “god works in mysterious ways.”
If this guy was speaker 3 for the affirmative team, 1 and 2 would be pissed off.
There are many reasons to pity Christians, this is just another one.
I personally like the idea of praying. It’s about believing that god isn’t aware of what is happening even though he's all knowing, and that this god who is allowing something to happen, might change his mind just because one mortal is asking him to.
The thing that disturbs me most is the fact that this shit is peddled on the youth. Those who have yet developed the faculties necessary to develop their own scientifically founded opinions. I think the legal age of indoctrination is more important that the legal age of inebriation or fornication.
I expect a large amount of hate mail from this article, and I am more than happy to post it publicly on the forum. I have no doubt that the majority of people want me dead. It’s no coincidence that the majority of people vote for Bush and the majority of people are freaking morons.
I feel it necessary that at this juncture that I direct your attention to the song undie man and I wrote about the Old Testament called “Deuteronomy for Dummies.” It is the lyrical/musical companion to this diatribe about the stupidity of Youth Not Ashamed!
Enjoy
Comments? Email me