名人演讲 :同性恋与道德的关系(5)
The Bible suggests that those who divorce and remarry should be put to death.
圣经里建议那些离婚之后又再婚的人，应该被处以死刑。
Why? Well because the New Testament defines divorce as adultery; the Old Testament prescribes death for adultery.
为什么？因为根据新约，离婚则视为"奸淫"，而旧约里规定了"奸淫"者要处以死刑。
Again, this doesn't sound very good.
同样，听起来也不是那么舒服。
The Bible suggests that slavery is morally acceptable.
圣经里认为奴隶制是符合伦理道德的。
People don't believe me when I tell them this.
我跟别人说起这些来，他们甚至不相信这真是出自圣经。
And I say, "Okay, I'll read to you."
好，我来给你读一下：
This is from Leviticus 25:44-46: You may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round about you.
利未记25：44-46："至于你的奴仆、婢女，可以从你四周的国中买。
You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property.
并且那寄居在你们中间的外人和他们的家属，在你们地上所生的，你们也可以从中买人，他们要做你们的产业。
You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession forever.
你们要将他们遗留给你们的子孙为产业，要永远从他们中间拣出奴仆。"
Who says this, according to the Bible?
这些话是谁说的？根据圣经的记载。
God says that, according to the Bible.
这是上帝的话。
And yet, we have a hard time imagining how an all-good, all-loving God could condone an institution like slavery.
我们怎么能想象，拥有至善大爱的上帝，竟然可以容忍像奴隶制这样的制度。
And it's not just the Old Testament, either.
而且不只是圣经旧约。
St. Paul says in Ephesians, "Slaves be obedient to your earthly masters, in fear and trembling, in singleness of heart as you obey Christ."
圣保罗在新约的以非所书中说："你们做仆人的，要惧怕战兢，用诚实的心听从你们肉身的主人，好像听从基督一般。"
Again, you look at this and say, "Well, what's a believer to do?"
看到这里，你可能要问："虔诚的信徒该怎么做？"
One thing I think you can do is to say maybe the Bible is wrong about certain things.
我的看法是，你可以承认，也许在某些事情上，圣经里的文字并非永远正确无误。
This does not mean that God is wrong.
这并不意味着我们说上帝是错的。
Rather, maybe human beings have been wrong in discerning God's word.
更有可能是人把上帝的言语理解错了。
After all, we should not confuse complete faith in God with complete faith in our ability to discern God's voice.
毕竟，对上帝全心全意的信仰，和对我们人类自己理解上帝意旨的能力的自信，是不能混为一谈的。
And, in fact, any honest look at history should tell us that we should be wary of people who are too certain that they speak directly for God.
事实上，我们只要用客观的态度回望历史，就会发现那些坚称自己是上帝意旨直接传达者的人，往往都值得我们高度警惕。
But, some people want to say, "No no no, the Bible is God's word.
有人也许要说："不不不，圣经是上帝的言语。
The Bible is infallible.
圣经一贯正确。
The Bible contains no error."
天衣无缝，无懈可击。"
And, I say, "The Bible contains no error? What are you going to do with those slavery passages?"
而我要说："圣经真的没有谬误吗？那些支持奴隶制的段落你怎么看？"
And you know what the people say to me? They say, "John, you are pulling those passages out of context.
你猜他们怎么回答我？他们说："约翰啊，你怎么说是在断章取义，
You can't just take passages out of the Bible and quote them as if they mean the same thing today as they did for the people at the time.
你怎么能离开上下文，单独引用某一段圣经，然后把这段本来只适用于古代的话，硬是和现在这个时代作对比。
You can't just pull the passages out of context!"
你这分明就是断章取义嘛。"
And I say, "Well, wait a second! If it's not okay to do that with the slavery passages, why is it okay to do that with the homosexual passages?"
等一下，如果赞同奴隶制的段落我们不能这么来理解的话，为什么反对同性恋的段落就可以这么做呢？
Because, after all, the context surrounding same-sex relations was very different in Biblical times than it is during our own day.
毕竟，对于同性关系来说，圣经时代的环境背景和现在的环境背景截然不同。
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