by Rev. Kellie Rupard-Shorr (used with permission and much gratitude!)
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." ~ John 16:33
Adam and Eve
"But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man." ~ Genesis 2:8-10
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
~ Genesis 1:27
The Story of Adam and Eve is an explanation, not a prescription. Leading Jewish Scholar Rabbi Joseph Telushkin maintains:
"Genesis central assertion is that all humankind descended from one couple to simply show the basis of the biblical view that all people of all races and religions are brothers and sisters."
Notice that nowhere does Jewish understanding make Genesis a reference to being a heterosexual mandate.
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