Have You Heard The Gospel According To… (Part II)

Last week I wrote about ChatGPT writing a Bible verse about us, well more fallout has happened over it.

ChatGPT Writes Trans-Affirming Bible Verse
The artificial intelligence software was asked to write a verse about Jesus’ acceptance of transgender people.
The Advocate
By Christopher Wiggins
August 16, 2023

Many LGBTQ+ individuals do not have a relationship with religion because of their history of exclusion among pious people, but one transgender Reddit user, or Redditor, said they felt dejected before reading a proposed Bible verse generated by ChatGPT. As an affirming example of tolerance, the artificial intelligence responded kindly to the person’s prompt.

Many people commented on it, and it received over 1,900 upvotes.

[...]

Though the AI verse was well received, many people pointed out difficulties with religious interpretation because the Bible is an amalgam of stories compiled over time, many of which had themes likely lost in translation.

According to others, there is a difference between religious texts that implicitly acknowledge gender-nonconforming individuals and those that explicitly acknowledge the existence of several genders beyond the binary.

On Your Tango website they write,

The verse has special resonance in 2023 because of the virulent transphobia and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment and legislation that continues to sweep the country — much of it supported and funded by Christians.

[…]

ChatGPT's fake Bible verse sparked a discussion about what the Bible actually says about gender, including ancient Jewish texts Jesus Himself would have followed.

You wouldn't know it to listen to the discourse around LGBTQ+ issues, but it has long been known that the Bible's supposed condemnation of queer people rests almost entirely on mistranslations.

[…]

The Talmud also accounts for whether these variations arose from natural causes or human interventions, such as eunuchs — a distinction Jesus Himself acknowledges in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, where in Matthew 19:12 He speaks of "eunuchs who were born that way," "eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others," as well as those who chose such an identity for themselves "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven."

To me it sound like they are talking about intersex people.

The problem is trying to put today’s language and ideas in to the writings of the Bible. We just don’t know what they were thinking back then. Also the Bible was written centuries later by a bunch of old men who had an ulterior motive to keep the “Church” in power and the peasants in line.

A number of years back a friend, Peterson Toscano wrote a play about gender in the Bible called Transfigurations--Transgressing Gender in the Bible. I saw the premier of his play at UMass at Amherst and in the play he pointed out many section in the Bible that may have trans people in them, where men were doing work usually done by women.

Here is clip from his play.

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In another blog post last week I wrote about how far right organizations were suing businesses over their diversity programs, here are more businesses that are being sued by a right-wing organizations.

Prominent US firms face allegations of workforce discrimination over diversity efforts

America First Legal has called on EEOC to probe gender, racial preferences in corporate hiring

• Two prominent U.S. corporations, Activision Blizzard Inc and Kellogg Co, have now joined the expanding ranks of major companies facing allegations from a group established by former officials of the Trump administration.
• This group, named America First Legal, contends that endeavors to enhance workforce diversity amount to illicit discrimination.
• America First Legal has urged the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to scrutinize Activision's purported utilization of gender and racial preferences within hiring and internship initiatives.

Reuters via Fox News
August 18, 2023

Activision Blizzard Inc and Kellogg Co have joined a growing list of major U.S. companies to face claims from a group founded by former Trump administration officials that efforts to diversify their workforces amount to illegal discrimination.

America First Legal this week urged the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate Activision's alleged use of gender and racial preferences in hiring and internship programs, after lodging a similar complaint against Kellogg last week.

America First has filed complaints with the EEOC involving Starbucks Corp, McDonald's Corp, Morgan Stanley, Anheuser-Busch Companies LLC, and Hershey Co, among other companies designated on its website as "woke corporations."

The group is headed by Stephen Miller, who was a senior adviser to Republican former President Donald Trump known for his hardline stance on immigration. Ex-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker are board members.

[…]

It is difficult to say whether the EEOC, which enforces federal laws banning workplace discrimination and currently has a Democratic majority, will take up America First's complaints.

I can’t say never, never will the EEOC hear the complaints but you never know in today’s politically charged climate, also you never know what will happen after the 2024 elections.