All of you have been weighing heavy on my mind

DaveXA said
But they do need to be unpacked separately. They are all not the same thing, and the intensity, cause and frequency of each of those issues varies throughout history. Some cultures have bigger problems with these issues than others. The historical backdrop will color people's views and experiences. The root causes and cultural norms of the times have to be taken into consideration when discussing tricky subjects. And because they happened doesn't mean God approved of them. But like I said earlier. This isn't a religious theology thread. We can visit these questions in pm or a separate thread.

All I ask for is fair consideration. I'm fine with rebuttals, but I'm not fine with having a one-sided debate. I'm not saying you're doing that now, but in my experience, I've had people attempt to do that with me, and I won't engage with someone who won't have a truly open dialogue with me. Regardless, it's going to take a new thread and lengthy posts to cover what needs to be covered to do the topics justice. I'm not going to be able to cover all of that in a short time frame, so expect it to be a lengthy thread.

We can unpack them separately if you want, and we can look at the historical and cultural backdrop, and somewhat determine intensity, cause and frequency; but inevitably, what we are going to find, is that a) the text in the Bible does reflect the history and culture of the time (women should be silent, homosexuals and adulterers should be stoned to death, etc) and b) our values have changed.

As far as God approving or not approving of these actions, the first obvious question is, is the Bible the word of God? If the Bible is the word of God, then it follows that, at best, God doesn't disapprove of those actions. The Bible goes to great lengths to tell people what to do and not to do, and it is very specific in things God disapproves of, many of them rather trivial, yet it says nothing about slavery being wrong (it actually tells you how to enslave people and who to buy them from), or stoning people to death being wrong (other than perhaps you should be righteous before you do so, although it seemed that was just a way to outsmart Pharisees) .

But, if you want to unpack them separately, we can start with homosexuality, since the Bible straight up condemns homosexuality. Do you believe homosexuals can inherit the kingdom of God?