Alabama state representative Alvin Hayes (D-Montgomery) is offering $5000 to anyone who can prove that Bible restricts marriage to one man and one woman.
""Anybody could have any interpretation they want of the Bible," Holmes told the Montgomery Advertiser."
This has raised all sorts of hackles with people dumping annotated and marked up Bibles at Hayes' office "proving" that the Bible is clear about marriage.
However, this problem gets to the heart of biblical interpretation and epistemology more generally. First of all, what does Hayes mean by prove? Does he requires some sort of absolute certainty. Is it one of the many burdens of proof available to legislators when constructing laws. No matter who offers him "proof," Hayes will always be able to hide behind a false notion of scientific and empirical proof that really cannot be applied to the Bible.
Furthermore, no matter how convincing your "proof" might be, if Hayes finds one religious figure to contradict you, you will be out of luck. Which of course raises the question -- by what authority? In order to be able to prove something of this sort, you have to agree on some standard interpretive authority or common framework of interpretation through which all parties can agree to be bound by. Otherwise, since words can mean anything we want them to mean in today's post-modern linguistically-debased context, you will get a quote like this from Hayes:
"Holmes responded quickly, according to the station, saying, "OK, but what that says [is] ... if two people should get married and if they are of the same sex then he becomes his wife and he's the husband.""
Of course, we will soon hear reports from the MSM that no one could "prove" it to him. Heh. Another case for the Magisterium.