Editor;
Why hasn’t an enlightened public demanded that all derogatory references to women, blacks, atheists, gays and lesbians be removed from holy books? These people have suffered from the beginning of time. Their continued present day inclusion in holy books is beyond belief. They have been ignored, imprisoned, dismissed, tried, tortured, stoned, raped and immured and lapidated. They constitute at least one half of the world’s population.
The burden of these people has to some extent been removed by wise politicians, courts, and liberal theologians. Some presidents have also been wise advocates for change for these people. Certainly President Obama’s recent fights for women and homosexuals have produced unbelievable results. Soon the Supreme Court will rule on gay marriage. The president should be lauded for his attempts to have a new morality, but some fundamentalists still believe in the inerrancy of the bible, and that is difficult to overcome.
Certainly the good books have some outstanding examples of good behavior, but they have lost respect over their refusal to put a new twenty first century morality into religion. What we have on hand now is painful, obsolete, unfair and tragic.
There have been hundreds of gods and hundreds of religions on record that have failed for refusing to change. Surely it is not sacrilegious to change what is considered sacrosanct if necessary. Democracy needs a new religious face to present to the world, and like President Thomas Jefferson wrote, someone should produce a new Bible.
Ray Standiford
