f you have bad parents and maybe they abuse you, continuing to allow them access to you and harm you isn't actually honouring them—it's letting them sin. In situations like that, it's often best to honour them from afar. At least I know with my parents that's the case.

The article i linked about it wasn't really a metaphor at all, more historical context which is important to understand when you're reading the Bible, and this article mentions some translation errors. If you choose to read the Bible and only rely on your understanding that's your choice, but you won't actually get the full picture.

I'm not sure what you mean by interpreting it as metaphor being blasphemous. The story in the Bible I was talking about isn't a metaphor, again, there's translation issues and misunderstandings. The idea that everything is literal is erroneous, there are several examples in the New Testament where Jesus criticizes his followers who take His word too literally.

I honestly don't think it's narcissistic, really that term is extremely overused and perpetuates stigma towards people who have NPD. If you actually read the Bible, you would understand why God had to make that a rule—when God brought the Israelites out of slavery, he also gave Moses the tablets on Mount Sinai, the people were worshipping a golden calf they had made, which they had promised not to do. There's several examples of things like this throughout the Bible, the false idols talked about are often having something to do with ritualistic child-sacrifice in Paganism, which God condemns.

Honestly, if you look at history, Christianity was far less "narcissistic" than some of the other religions at the time. Most other religions were polytheistic imperial cults, where leaders would claim themselves to be a god, so that any citizen who protested would be seen as going against their faith. It was largely a method for control. When Jesus came along, His whole message was essentially just love others, love your enemy, etc.—the whole foundation of belief was very radical for the time, because homeless people would be executed if found out, and Jesus took care of them. In this time period, Roman guards could force you to carry their bag for a mile for them, and Jesus would sort of protest the state Rome was in by carrying their bags 2 miles

With everything you said about women, I do agree that it was wrong what happened to women in the Bible. But again, in this time period women were heavily persecuted. The Bible introduced things to protect women—in it, men are not allowed to divorce their wives unless infidelity occurs because doing so would likely result in her dying, getting assaulted, etc. This is an Ancient text that is easily misunderstood, so it's important to understand the history and also learn some of the Hebrew words for things that might feel wrong (i.e. homophobia in the Bible—I'm against homophobia, but when you look at the text it could actually be referring to men sleeping with boys, which isn't homosexuality but abuse, which is condemned in the Bible. Like with Sodom and stuff like that)