finished my site self-evaluation review. not as terrible as previous ones this time, but still not up to snuff.

40% satisfactory.

Two years and still not very good answers on this:

I thought Muslims might have more to say about it, especially since it is a common refrain for western cultures to bad mouth Islam in this respect.

@fredsbend I reckon it's because most experts are just tired of defending themselves against these sort of attacks.

these sorts of interpretations are pretty much the exact same ones that I've been reading and hearing for the last two decades or so. (and they've probably been around forever longer; that's just how long I personally have been paying attention to it)

and most of the people who aren't tired of responding to them are just repeating the exact same apologetic that's been out there for those same last two decades or so.

Can someone cherry-pick verses from Scripture to justify their actions, regardless of how acceptable those actions are in the mainstream? Yes.

That's pretty much the case across all religions.

Can someone cherry-pick verses to condemn those same actions? Yes.

And as far as I'm concerned, neither is in any way appropriate for understanding Scripture.

"Believe ye in part of the Scripture, and disbelieve ye in part thereof?"