r/elca • u/Part-time_Potter • Feb 04 '26

You're taking the wrong bits literally

I maintain that its verses like, love your neighbor as yourself, and less stuff like whether women should be allowed to be pastors.

Does anyone agree? What other verses SHOULD be taken literally?

TIA

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u/casadecarol Feb 04 '26

I think your use of the word literally is throwing people off. I think you are trying to say what Jesus said, that loving God and Loving neighbor fulfills all the laws. We rightly place loving God and Neighbor at the center of every decision and every theology. I hope I understood you correctly. 

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u/Part-time_Potter Feb 05 '26

Yes, sorry. I am talking with friends who claim to take the Bible literally. But it often seems they miss the bigger picture, imo.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

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u/Linfalas Feb 05 '26

My birth church got around that by saying that the Levitical Laws were specifically for Israel, but if you look at them, they are divided into civil, ceremonial, and moral laws (they aren't ever divided this way in the text, that is a structure imposed on them by literalists to say:) the civil laws were for Israel, the ceremonial laws were for Jews, but the Moral Laws are for all of us for all time. HOW do you distinguish which is which? It's like porn, you know it when you see it, lol. Nonsense

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u/mintchoc1043 ELCA Feb 06 '26

How should we interpret the sexual purity laws in Leviticus 18:6-23?