Honestly, I'm not really trying to focus on religion here -- it just keep showing up in the news. And usually, it's the left bringing it up.

This week, NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff, quoting Spong, urges liberals to confront conservative Christians using biblical values.

I've experienced this a number of times. I'm amicably sparring on some topic with a liberal opponent, and suddenly they bring up some biblical argument about how Jesus wants this or that, or would have voted for their favorite candidate.

This doesn't usually work out well for them, as they've typically not very familliar with the document from which they claim their ideas are drawn. But they always go in with huge amounts of confidence because -- after all -- they are constantly told that their opponents don't even know the bible, and that liberals -- just by being liberal, apparently -- deeply understand it's core points.

Kristoff sets up his liberal readers for more such failures. But that's okay -- the point is really to convince liberals they're right, not correct misguided conservatives.

For example:

In fact, when conservatives quote from the Bible to make moral points, they tend to quote very selectively. After all, while Leviticus bans gay sex, it also forbids touching anything made of pigskin ...

But it is, of course, Spong (and now Kristoff) who is doing the selective quoting. Had Kristoff consulted Acts 15, he would have discovered that the first disciples -- under guidance from God, purportedly -- stated that, while Gentiles didn't need to worry about Jewish Kosher laws, they still needed to avoid sexual immorality. Paul re-interates in Romans 1 that homosexuality is still immoral, whereas the New Testament teaches repeatedly that people aren't bound to Kosher Laws.

These are, of course, rather elementary arguments for a Christian to make, and an unknowledgable liberal following Kristoff's advice...

Liberals can and should confront Bible-thumping preachers on their own terms, for the scriptural emphasis on justice and compassion gives the left plenty of ammunition. After all, the Bible depicts Jesus as healing lepers, not slashing Medicaid.

... is setting herself up for a surprise.

But again, the point is only to reaffirm the rightness of liberal beliefs to the uninformed, not to find out what the bible is really saying.

After all, Jesus healed the lepers himself, rather than making demands Caesar do it for him, using other people's money -- and God cautioned the Israelites that their desire for a strong, centralized human government arose fundamentally from their rejection of Him.