Kent, I appreciate you reading my piece and writing a thoughtful comment. I think we’ll have to agree to disagree.

Whereas you believe, “The plain meaning of the Bible, for most critical measures, is not difficult to understand,” I believe there’s no such thing as a “plain meaning” in Scripture. The Bible’s a complex piece of ancient literature designed to require close reading and rereading over a lifetime. Even the passages about “critical measures,” such as salvation, lead to diverse interpretations and theories.

Moreover, the Bible itself evolves in its own ethics and morality (e.g., slavery, violence, divorce). The story goes from God commanding genocide to Jesus saying turn the other cheek, from “don’t own slaves” to “own slaves under these rules,” from “men can divorce whenever” to “divorce only in cases of adultery.” The Bible isn’t a rule-book that tells us what to do to please God. It’s a book of wisdom that we must apply.

To my knowledge, the Bible never says anything about trans people one way or the other. Some may read the Bible and say, “I think it’s pleasing to God to ‘love’ trans people by condemning their existence.” I read the Bible and conclude, “I think it’s pleasing to God to ‘love’ trans people by supporting them however I can.”

Nor does the Bible state an explicit position on abortion. We don’t know “God’s opinion” about abortion from the Bible, only (maybe) how we interpret the Bible’s overarching narrative. Its verses that mention homosexuality, as I’ve written elsewhere, are anything but clear-cut, at best, once you put them into context.

The only way one can say the Bible speaks clearly about trans people, abortion, or LGBTQ issues is to take the relevant verses out of context and/or impose one’s views onto them.