Unpolished rant: The Bible is not Clear

Understanding what God wants from you shouldn't be that difficult. People like to say that God is the parent and we're the children, so let's go with that. I try to make it VERy clear to my kids what the rules are; what's okay, and what's not so okay, what's praiseworthy and what's absolutely forbidden.

Of course I give my kids leeway; have some freedom, even have the opportunity to screw up. But I don't let them damage themselves or others. I stop them before they run out in front of cars, before they pour boiling water on themselves.

This God I grew up with, He's fine with His children maiming, raping, and killing each other. He only makes a few of the rules clear, and those aren't all of the important ones (so "honor your parents" made the 10 commandments cut, but "don't hurt children" didn't? How about "don't rape"? "Don't betray"?) We're left with huge debates on whether being gay is a sin (Leviticus says yes, the 21st century says no), whether divorce and contraception and premarital sex are wrong, on and on.

And there's a key difference here. If we're really His children, and therefore too stupid (immature, not godly, whatever) to know the mind of God, then why do we get to CHOOSE whether to BE His children? My kids aren't allowed to say YOU'RE not my MOM...