Posted on 12/05/2008 7:33:52 AM PST by dbz77
This week, the creative minds behind Hairspray, composer Marc Shaiman and director Adam Shankman, opened their Prop 8: The Musical with an all-star studded cast that includes Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris and John C. Reilly at Sacramento Community College.
You can watch it here.
The point of the production is to shame the voting public for passing Proposition 8 a month ago, which simply defined marriage in California as between a man and a woman. The musical is clearly intended to spark more public outrage. No doubt, more protests, more storming of Mormon temples and Catholic churches and more vandalism against churches will follow. Beyond that, it is likely that more church services will be crashed by same-sex activistsall in the name of tolerance, love, and mutual understanding.
The strategy behind this shaming-of-the-public production is simple: lampoon the supporters of the constitutional amendment into embarrassment so that the next time same-sex marriage shows up on the ballot, theyll do the loving thing, and support it rather than reject it, which is the only one true path to social penance, cultural redemption and liberal forgivenessat least in the mind of the same-sex marriage crowd.
Whats new about all this is their overt play, albeit erroneously, of the Jesus card. Yes, even the No on 8 crowd can get religion.
At the pivotal moment of the musical, Jesus (played by Jack Black) confronts the Yes on 8 supporters for their belief that homosexuality is an abomination, and lifts a shrimp cocktail to them and says that Leviticus also says eating shellfish likewise is an abomination.
He then goes on to say the Bible also teaches that you can stone your wife, or sell your daughter into slavery, as evidence that you really cant trust everything the Bible teaches. Or, as in the language of that oft-repeated favorite locution from our skeptical friends, you cant take the Bible literally.
So much for the doctrine of inerrancy. I guess the Word made flesh really didnt mean everything He said in the Word. Maybe we should put our trust in a non-believer to divine the good words from the bad words, huh?
Before leaving, Jesus even goes on to affirm, of all things, the separation of church and state.
Now these are delightful challenges! As a teacher, I wish more students had the courage to ask them.
Here are a few answers:
The whole point of Leviticus and Deuteronomy was to teach Israel how to separate and become distinct from all they had learned while in Egyptian captivity. They are books of contrast and separation, distinctions and differences. For example, Egypt worshipped death, Israel was called to worship life. The Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 are instructions of how to become different. Holy items shall be sanctifiedliterally, set apartthat is, distinct from non-holy items. Jews themselves, and later Christians, are likewise to be set apart for God.
Men and women were created different and distinct, therefore their roles, behavior and even dress should not be confused as the Egyptians did (and many pagan cultures still do).
For example, Deuteronomy 22:11 says, You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together. The whole reason being dont confuse plant and animal products, theyre different categories, remember that. Theres painful detail throughout the Bible pounding this meta-theme home.
God created different kinds of things, and we must honor His distinctions and not confuse them, for it is an abomination, exactly the very thing advocates for same-sex marriage are guilty of.
What about the shellfish? If you read the context of Leviticus 11:9-12, it too is talking about honoring distinctions. God is simply saying, in my paraphrase, Eat fish, dont eat bugs. Fish have fins and swim, bugs have legs and crawl. Even if you find things in the water that arent crawling, if they have legs, they can crawlso theyre bugs, dont eat them. Fish, good; sea-bugs, bad. Honor the distinction.
The Bibles statements prohibiting homosexual behavior are rooted in this need to recognize and honor the distinctionshere between men and women.
As far as the eating of shrimp, Jesus permits the eating of shellfish under what he says in Matthew 15:11: It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man. And Paul emphasized in Romans 14:14 that its all about personal conscience anyway.
As far as the stoning your wife and selling your daughter into slavery claims go, they too have a simple answer. In 1400 B.C., before the law was given to Moses by the hand of God at Mt. Sinai, no nation had any moral code that prohibited a man from killing his wife, wives, or children for any reason. Pagans sacrificed their children to Baal and Moloch, Israel would not. Pagans could kill their families, Israel would not. So, the Old Testament improved the extant moral order by requiring men to go before the elders before any child was to be stoned (Deuteronomy 21:19). And, in all of the rabbinic writings to my knowledge theres not one instance of the elders ever approving of a single stoning of a child.
Lastly, when you read the full context of Exodus 21:7-11, the selling your daughter into slavery slur, it too was an improvement over the ancient moral order. My paraphrase again, If you sell your daughter off to a man and he becomes unhappy with her, he must give you a chance to redeem her and buy her back, he may not sell her off to foreigners. And if the man bought her for his son, she must not be treated as a slave, but as a daughter. Like all the other teachings in the Old Testament, this was a big improvement over what was going on among the peoples around Israel.
Come to think of it, it still iswe still have honor killings of wayward daughters and wives today throughout the Muslim world.
Like Michelle Malkin, I too am waiting for the other Prop 8 musical to come out, as she says, the one with angry activists storming restaurants and Mormon temples, hectoring elderly people over their signs, and hounding donors large and small until they pay off their tormentors in the name of tolerance. Anyone?
Ill bet the Hairspray boys wont be doing that one any time soon.
Where does the term sodomy come from? Where is the parallel term for someone who eats shellfish?
truth!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.