Bible Quoting Politician Targets Gays But Not Bankers

I READ THIS STORY TODAY: 

Republican Mississippi State Rep Uses Bible Quote To Call For Death For Gays

POSTED IN LIBERALAND BY ALAN • MAY 19, 2012, 2:10 PMET

Mississippi State Representative Andy Gipson posted a Bible verse on his Facebook page that says gays should be put to death and, when called on it, is defending it.

Gipson posts a comment about how homosexuality is “unnatural” and causes “disease.”

According to Leviticus 20:13, “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”

After being asked to apologize by UnityMS, Gipson doubled down.

“To be clear, I want the world to know that I do not, cannot, and will not apologize for the inspired truth of God’s Word. It is one thing that will never “change.”

Should We Apply BIBLICAL Standards to Other Moral Questions?

I thought It would be instructive to apply Representative Gipson’s four-thousand year old biblical standards to another area where our moral decay is rampant.  I am referring to a sin so wicked and widespread that it has undermined the social fabric of America and brought pain and misery to millions around the globe.  I refer of course to usury, or the lending of money for profit.  Below are some Biblical quotations on the subject, all of which are surely the “inspired truth of God’s Word,” as Mr. Gipson puts it.  Keep in mind as you read them that the poorest borrowers are those who rely on payday lenders that charge interest rates in excess of 400%, while the wealthiest borrowers, the banks, borrow money at the lowest rates.  After reviewing what the Bible has to say about this, it is clear  Wall Street bankers and financiers need to take heed.  By these biblical standards the wrath of God may be upon them next.  Here is what the Bible says about...     

                               THE MONEYLENDERS 

Leviticus 25:35-37 ESV

“If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

1 Timothy 6:9 ESV

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction

Ezekiel 22:12 ESV

In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.

Ezekiel 18:13 ESV

Lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.

Nehemiah 5:10-11 ESV

Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest.   Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.”

Haggai 2:8 ESV

The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.

But wait... didn’t Atlas Shrug?  Aren’t we cool with usury these days?

Apparently so.  Ayn Rand has become the modern prophet of profits among many Christian conservatives.  In an essay defending modern usury entitled, The Morality of Moneylending: A Short History, Yaron Brook said, “If moneylending is to be recognized as a fully legitimate practice and defended accordingly, then its defenders must discover and embrace a new code of ethics, one that upholds self-interest—and thus personal profit—as moral.”

Brook went on to say: 

There is such a morality: It is Ayn Rand’s Objectivist ethics, or rational egoism, and it is the missing link in the defense of usury (and capitalism in general).

According to rational egoism, man’s life—the life of each individual man—is the standard of moral value, and his reasoning mind is his basic means of living. Being moral, on this view, consists in thinking and producing the values on which one’s life and happiness depend—while leaving others free to think and act on their own judgment for their own sake. The Objectivist ethics holds that people should act rationally, in their own long-term best interest; that each person is the proper beneficiary of his own actions; that each person has a moral right to keep, use, and dispose of the product of his efforts; and that each individual is capable of thinking for himself, of producing values, and of deciding whether, with whom, and on what terms he will trade. It is a morality of self-interest, individual rights, and personal responsibility. And it is grounded in the fundamental fact of human nature: the fact that man’s basic means of living is his ability to reason.

Ayn Rand identified the principle that the greatest productive, life-serving power on earth is not human muscle but the human mind. Consequently, she regarded profit-seeking—the use of the mind to identify, produce, and trade life-serving values—as the essence of being moral.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT

The same four-thousand year old biblical standards applied by Representative Gipson to gays won't be applied to bankers because... why?  Because the prophet Ayn Rand has spoken.  Wall Street greed, a truly major biblical sin, hardly gets a Bible mention in conservative circles despite the very real harm it has caused millions of people.  But the private lives of those who love others of the same gender is a popular conservative cause for bringing down the wrath of God. 

Cherry picked Bible quotes should never be used to judge any modern social issue for lots of good reasons.  History teaches us that the Bible quotes people uses to impune the character of others says more about their own flawed character.