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Jennifer, part of the problem is that morality is culturally constructed. There are some things that are common to almost all cultures* (and which boil down to "do no harm"), but for the most part everything else is determined by the culture in which you grow up and live.

For instance, (until lately) homosexuality was a Bad Thing in America. There are cultures around the world where it's the norm and people only associate with the opposite sex for procreation (and for a little while boys are with their mothers- until they're weaned). But that's the way they were raised... and a knee-jerk reaction against homosexuality is just as much a cultural thing as their acceptance of it. (By the way- FYI, I'm straight, been married for 25 years, and believe that men and women aren't all that different. I use homosexuality as an example because it is one of the most extremely misunderstood and misused topics in this country- and it is also one of the most divisive- although it shouldn't be.)

Most of the "rules" from the Pentecostals (and other fundamentalist groups) actually fall into the "culturally determined but assigned to 'God's Law'" category. The writers of the Old Testament were trying to separate out the Hebrews from the Babylonians during their exile to Babylon. Most of the food and behavior rules were designed to make Jewish people act different from the Babylonians. The New Testament was collected to support a top-down-hierarchical model and many of the 'rules' formed from it are actually not what was intended (at least as far as we can tell) by Jesus, much less the writers of the books of the New Testament. Scholars disagree vehemently with the idea of the Bible being "dictated by God", contrary to what I remember being taught in the Pentecostal churches I'd belonged to.

Add to that mix the fact that while a great many passages in the Bible decry the abuse of the poor (and average citizens) by the rich, while less than 5** decry (again as an example) homosexuality. I've read the number somewhere- but I think it's something like over 1500 passages decry the abuses of the rich and how offensive that is to God. Think about it- when is the last time a pentecostal preacher preached against the abuses of the rich? I know when I was an Assemblies of God cult member- I never once heard a sermon against the rich, while hearing many against gay people (and against "libruls!!!" and against higher education).

So it boils down to this hard question- what do YOU choose as being moral and not moral??? Think about that question, and you'll start finding answers.


*Cultures under extreme stress have been known to go against the "morals common to all" as a way to adapt to the pressure they're under. Cultures NOT under this extreme pressure have the "morals common to all" (which includes marriage, by the way- an interesting side point).

** Linguistic scholars say that these passages are almost certainly mistranslated and misconstrued. The meaning of the operative words translated as homosexual (or the equivalent) are not known- and there is a significant amount of evidence that translators in the past had a anti-gay, anti-woman, pro top-down-hierarchy bias, which affects how words are translated. This bias is becoming more and more accepted as fact.

I remember a Pente sermon about Christmas and Saint Nicholas- the preacher went through some mental/verbal gymnastics and tried to say that Santa Claus was the devil. (Santa Claus comes from Saint Nick which comes from "Old Nick" which is the Devil or something like that.)

I thought that was a bit crazy... and it WAS a surprise to learn that Saint Nicholas was a real person who had some really great stories connected with him. The interesting thing is that archaeologists have found his tomb and identified his skeleton- with facial reconstruction, he was a tough looking character for someone with such a loving heart!

Saint Valentine is another real person that people usually don't know really existed. He was also well known for his love of people (and like Saint Nicholas, for his helping people in need).