Dear Ozair,

My name is Claudine. A long time ago (3½ years!) Scott Cherry shared with me some of his fascinating correspondence with you about a few passages in the Old Testament books of Moses (and the Qur'an) that were stimulating intense discussion. Well, way back then I wrote this letter for you but Scott chose not to post it until now, especially focused on Deuteronomy 22:28-29.[1]

I understand your difficulty with those bible passages because like many, I share in some of your thoughts. I thought that you may like to hear from a Christian woman on the issue of what seemed to you as rape and pedophilia in the Old Testament.

Nothing can be understood if we don’t understand the beginning: In the beginning...God’s creation was perfect, but a big problem happened: Man disobeyed God. Man decided to listen and trust another voice than that of his creator even though God had warned him it would lead to death. Every other problem humanity has ever experienced stems from that.

By Marc Bayne, one of the two presenters

This is a short list of articles and documents for further reading and consideration on the subject of gay marriage, in connection with the January 23, 2016 seminar on this subject.  

This seminar examined the arguments Christians and the Church have relied on in the "gay debate" within our culture. We presented some historical insights into the development of marriage customs from a variety of societies, with a focus on the West and America. Participants discussed and processed the content to identify the apologetics, and the moral/cultural considerations.  In our discussion we also considered several Scripture texts to determine and show the Biblical position on homosexual behaviors and/or lifestyles, and how churches and individual Christians should respond accordingly.  This topic is also of interest to Muslims because Islam experiences similar cultural currents in the West.  

Presenters: Dan Kersey and Marc Bayne