Denouncing homosexuality on basis of Scripture while continuing to eat shellfish is rank hypocrisy

IN the letter, “Every word in the Bible can’t be taken literally” (Write Back, August 16), your correspondent takes to task another letter writer concerning watering down and cherry-picking from the Bible.

The correspondent cites examples of this, including asking the letter writer if he agrees “that people should not eat shellfish (Leviticus 11:9-10)?”

I worked as a Kosher chef in Israel for 10 years and the Biblical restrictions concerning animals proscribed by God as unclean, such as swine and shellfish, only backed what I learned in catering college in Belfast; namely, that these are high-risk foods which need to be handled, stored and cooked with the utmost care in order to avoid poisoning.

Such animals were created by God to clean the planet by eating rotting flesh on land and filtering out impurities including sewage in the water.

Thus, God commanded Noah to include them on the Ark in twos for breeding purposes only as they are an ecological necessity, whereas the ‘clean’ animals where taken in sevens as they were not scavengers and thus deemed safe/clean to eat. Noah wasn’t Jewish, but he knew what animals not to eat.

The Bible calls eating shellfish an “abomination” in the same book that it also strongly denounces homosexuality as an “abomination”.

If Christians can quote that “the law of the Lord is perfect” and “the statutes of the Lord are right” (Psalm 19:7-8) in denouncing homosexuality, they should also uphold God’s warning of the foods He told us to avoid.

Jesus never ate pork or shellfish, so why do so many of those professing to be His followers ignore the Biblical prohibitions on this matter?

COLINNEVIN Bangor, Co Down