As a Protestant Christian, one thing that I hate is when non-Christians tell Christians what the Bible says.
They might be able to read words, but what happens nearly 100% of the time is that they rip it right out of context. Let me give you a perfect example that happens all the time.
Non-Christians always tell us “the Bible says not to judge”. This is false and could not be further from the truth.
The passage that they always cite is Matthew 7:1-5,
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
“See? Right there, judge not that you be not judged. That means don’t judge.” Wrong. Read the entirety of the passage and you’ll see that the warning is against judging hypocritically.
In this passage, Jesus analogously compares judging to seeing and taking a speck out of a brother’s eye. Notice he says first take the log out of your own eye, then you can see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. In other words, before you pronounce judgment on someone for a particular sin, you, who practices the same sin, needs to get rid of that practice yourself before you call someone else out on it, because they can just do the same back to you…you hypocrite. But Jesus never says don’t take the speck out of his eye, he says to get yourself in check first.
…and that’s your Bible lesson for the day!
I could go on and point out other passages that actually tell Christians that we should and will judge others, but this would continue for a while.
But anyway…Kamala Harris is trying to lecture us on the Bible.
“I do believe that that act of getting vaccinated is the very essence of what the Bible tells us when it says love thy neighbor. Right? Because what we know is, one can ask, ‘Who is one’s neighbor?’ Is it the person who lives to my left, lives to my right? I know them, may borrow a cup of sugar. Right? But what we know it means when we talk about love thy neighbor.”
I’m sorry, but the essence of the Bible’s teaching of love thy neighbor is not a message of compelling others to do something that violates their conscience. Look, some people are okay with the vaccine, some aren’t.
No matter what side of the vaccine argument you fall on, it’s fine. But what the bible is speaking about when it comes to loving thy neighbor is not vaccination or nothing at all. There are still other ways to care for one another. I know with 100% certainty that I don’t have the virus. I also know when I could potentially be exposed and monitor myself and stay home just in case. This is another way to love thy neighbor.