"Media" used to mean "print media" like books and newspapers, but the world has grown. Today media can also mean radio, television and movies delivered to personal computers, tablets and cell phones. As the world's best selling book of all time the Bible continues to make headlines, both good and bad, across all forms of media. This week in the Bible and Media: A double-secret version of the book of Leviticus apparently supports homosexuality and the LGBTQ agenda, and a Bible, "weaponized" by "twisted" and "monstrous" Christians, is removed from a military display for soldiers missing in action.

Last Saturday's New York Times published an opinion piece titled The Secret History of Leviticus, by Idan Dershowitz. Dr. Dershowitz is an ancient literature scholar from the liberal school of Biblical studies, so it isn't surprising that he would want the Bible's strong stance against sexually deviant behavior to be softened at the least, and turned completely around at best. Unfortunately for him, the Bible is not a Rorschach Test whereby everyone can see something different and still be right. The crux of his argument is that the Leviticus passages that discuss sexual integrity (chapters 18 and 20) appear to him to have been altered at some point in the past.

It is true that some language in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, have been "updated" and some of those updates made it into later copies. For example (without getting bogged down in dates and details), In Exodus a city is named that did not exist under that name during the period of the Exodus event. The city went by another name at that time, but it was more commonly known later by the ruler that conquered it. Our manuscripts today contain the later name of that city. This does not change the meaning of the text at all, and in fact helps us pinpoint that cities location, something we would not be able to do had the name not been updated. This is not the kind of alteration that Dr. Dershowitz is talking about, however.

Dershowitz claims that the entire text was changed dramatically, and that the original language permitted homosexuality. What evidence does he have to support this radical theory? Did he discover a previously unknown ancient fragment of Leviticus, older than anything we have today that reveals this change of the Hebrew Law? Is there an ancient rabbi or scholar who wrote commentary about the passage and perhaps quotes it as saying that homosexuality is permitted? Are there textual cues indicating that the reverse argument may have been the authors original intent? No. On all counts, no. There is no evidence presented for this point of view, only wishful thinking. But the Times doesn't need proof, evidence or even sound reasoning for an opinion piece, they only require that it cast doubt on the integrity of Scripture. For a credible critique of Dershowitz's opinion, see Dr. Michael L. Brown's article here.

In other news, due to the objection of a few atheists a "missing man" display at the F. E. Warren Air Force base in Wyoming will have it's Bible removed from the arrangement. The Bible is a part of most such displays at US Military bases around the world and "represents the strength gained through faith to sustain us and those lost from our country, founded as one nation under God.” The display also includes in its arrangement a rose, candle and empty place setting indicating a hopeful return of those missing in action. The Bible is being replaced with a book that includes teachings from several faiths, and even a few blank pages at the end for those of another — or no — faith. This isn't the first time such a victory has been won by the atheist group, they have seen this kind of change made in Akron (OH), Buffalo (NY), Denver (CO) and Tobyhanna (PA). The president of the atheist group, Mikey Weinstein had this to say:

"Today we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation’s Armed Forces."

Yeah, I know. We'll all start praying for his soul. I mean, that's what monsters do, right?