February 8, 2013Dear Sir,Two weeks ago in Church, I noted that the Collect for the day referenced slavery as the Bible often does, as a completely normal aspect of life, as something that is completely acceptable. This of course is a predominant view throughout the Old Testament, in many of the books. Even in the New Testament, Paul befriends a slave in prison amd writes a note to his master, asking that the slave be taken back.And this comes as no surprise to any Christian who studies their Bible. But what about the Bible being the literal Word of God, above interpretation?Now with gay rights again on the horizon, people will trot out their references to Bible passages which they believe condemn such activity.So how do you square the dilemma - that the Bible is either all right or that parts of the Bible simply relect the times in which it was recorded. For certainly we know that slavery is abhorrent - don’t we?Pretty clear to me that the Bible is very far off, at least on this subject.LIVING IN PARADISESmith’s