General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This Church Sign Is Awesome {It's real, so don't even start with me.} [View all]Moonwalk
(2,322 posts)...is just for the Children of Israel. The Jews. That's what Christians either forget when they want to hold up signs condemning gays or wanting the 10 commandments in courtrooms, or forget about when they don't want to keep kosher or want to condemn gays but not condemn themselves given that half of what they're doing condemns them as much as it does those who engage in homosexual acts.
The OT is the story of one group of people who worship one particular god: Yahweh. This god says it. Basically, all descendants of Abraham--of the twelve brothers and thus of the twelve tribes (and/or converts to that religion) are his. He doesn't say, "I'm the only god there is and all people are mine." He's just the god of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden--when they leave, they find other people. Other people created by other gods. In fact, the whole Passover story is about how Yahweh, more or less, reclaims his people and kicks the asses of the Egyptian gods (or at least the Pharaoh--a god incarnate according to the Egyptians; don't forget, Pharaoh's priests can turn staffs in to snakes, just like Moses. The big deal isn't Moses' "power" given to him by god, but that his snakes eat the snakes of the priests. i.e. his god is more powerful than any of their gods).
The laws you list are all laws for Jews. Not anyone else. And the OT god is for the Jews, not anyone else. According to the OT, everyone else can have whatever god they like. The OT god is meaner and more powerful, but he's for Jews only.
This, alas, is either conveniently remembered or forgotten by certain Christians when they need/don't need the OT to back up certain arguments.