What many Christians, especially of the conservative persuasion, tend to forget, is that Deuteronomy (and indeed all the laws in the Pentateuch except the Ten Commandments and the commandments given to Noah) describes the
national law of the tribes of Israel, and as such many of them are not even binding for modern, Orthodox Jews. Many of these laws were religious in nature, but many were also purely of what we today would call a "secular" nature; they were intended to make society function. And at the time, they were unusually humane, compared to surrounding cultures.
Whether these laws were given directly by God, or by men who were divinely inspired, or made in another way, is not really important. The important thing is what the Apostles decreed when Gentiles started to become Christians:
Quote from: The Apostles (Acts 15:28-29)It is the decision of the holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right. Farewell.
It is also commonly held that what was said about food in this passage was not because there would be any sin involved in eating them (St. Paul confirms this), but because Jewish Christians would have difficulties accepting their new brethren if Gentile Christians ate sacrificial meat, blood and so on. Because of this, the later Church did
not hold believers to these dietary laws.
To sum up, according to the Apostles themselves, the Jewish law does not bind Christians. Deuteronomy is completely irrelevant to Christian moral teaching. So if I ever meet a Christian who slings verses from Deuteronomy to condemn me, I will tell them they'll have to find something better than that to justify their view.
I will also ask them if they believe I as a Christian should:
- Make sure not to take the mother bird if I ever steal eggs from a nest. (Deut. 22:6-7)
- Put a parapet on my roof if I ever build a house. (Deut. 22:8 )
- Never mix seeds if I ever plant a vineyard. (Deut. 22:9)
- Never plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. (Deut. 22:10)
- Never wear cloth made by a mix of wool and linen. (Deut. 22:11)
- Put tassels on the corners of my coat. (Deut. 22:12)
Obviously, if Deut. 22:5 is the eternal and unchanging commandment of God, then so is Deut. 22:11. Yet, I see quite an amount of Christians wearing mixed-textile clothing without much scruples. This kind of cherry picking is irrational and not least un-Christian.
