For good people to do bad things...

[Edwardo Piet]

I already responded to the "Jesus supported the Old Testament" question. Please incorporate my response within your reply, such that it reflects the point rather than ignores it.

Because I am still saying "If Jesus supports the OT as a whole", because I want to know if he supports the whole of the OT or not, and whether that would include the immoral bits. Because you said "maybe" and how it's layed out clearly in the Bible. And rather than sit down and read the Bible right now, I'm going to simply ask if you believe he supports the whole of the OT or not?

I already addressed this point [...]

I understand your point that it doesn't follow from Christian beliefs. But now I wonder is how specifically you are defining Christianity, because you seem to think that all Christians agree on the definition?

You say such immoral acts are not Christian. So above I am asking if Christ condones any of the horror in the OT, in which case there would be a contradiction. Or if not (and I assume you think not), then do you just brush aside all the horror in the OT? And what do you think the purpose of all that immoral stuff in there is?

Well, any time when part of the Bible (I never said specifically NT) that is unpleasant is chosen to be metaphorical, when it could just as easily be read literally, is cherry-picking.

First, the issue does not pivot on some Old Testament passage being metaphorical versus literal.

No, but it's certainly my main point. If the OT is to be respected by Christians and not just tossed aside, how is it decided what parts are to be literal and what metaphorical, without ever cherry-picking? How can Christians never cherry-pick?

As for your second point, I'll just say that I'll accept that some parts are explicitly metaphorical. I am talking about the case when bits that aren't explicitly metaphorical, are to either be interpreted literal or metaphorically, and if this can really be done without ever cherry-picking by Christians.

[Are you saying that no Christians cherry-pick?]

That is not even close to what I said.

Not even close? Well that was all my original point was (an obvious one I thought): That some Christians cherry-pick. To which fr0d0 responded that I only think that because I don't know what Christianity is. Which is entirely irrelevant to my point about whether Christians cherry-pick or not. So if that's not even close, do you agree with me after all, that there are Christian cherry-pickers?

EvF