You can have any type of gun? Can I sell my daughter?

What is happening that so many letters "to the editor" are filled with diatribes and the nefarious, bordering on slander?

Reader Bob Anderson’s letter on July 11 was nothing more than thinly-veiled attempts to discredit those with a different point of view with the scare tactic “they will take your guns away."

If the right to bear arms places military-type weapons in the hands of every criminal, terrorist and the mentally-troubled, we are no longer a democracy but a country governed by a document that leaves little room for interpretation.

Why not do away with two branches of government and just defer to the judicial? I am reminded of a how the fundamentalists interpret the Bible with their literal reading of the of the scripture.

Their myopic and perfidious view of life would have us go back to time when most folk were illiterate, slavery was not questioned and women were not allowed to vote. I once read a letter addressed to a Protestant evangelical who believed in a literal reading of Holy Writ:

1) Leviticus 25.44 states that I may possess slaves, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations.

A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify?

2) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21.7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair pice for her?

3) When I burn a bull on the altar as sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor to the Lord (Lev 1.9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

4) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shell fish is an abomination (Lev.11.10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this? Are there degrees of abomination?

5) Leviticus 21.20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my eyesight. I have wear corrective lenses. Does my vision has to be 20/20? Or is there some wiggle room?

The point is that we have a judiciary whose sole mandate is to interpret the U.S. Constitution, not literally but hermeneutically.

The writer lives in Pawleys Island.

This story was originally published July 24, 2016 at 10:10 AM with the headline "You can have any type of gun? Can I sell my daughter?."