In Reply to: Re: Thanks for posting this posted by OT2 on March 16, 2006 at 10:09:07:
i sometimes wonder on what biblical passage you base your attitude, which come across to me, a christ follower w/ a deep love for scripture, as highly confrontational. i believe the bible is an inspired gift from God, but would agree that trying to say every word currently found in the english bible is absolute literal truth does pose serious problems. (i.e., how same event in various gospels recorded differently, even God speaking is qt'ed differently in accounts of jesus' baptism..) A more flexible, and culturally understanding approach seems to be necessary unless one reads the book w/ a nonsensical approach to what is going on.i think it helps to try and understand how the gospels are written,if the attitude towards literal accuracy in every detail was likely to have been the same as one might find at jerry falwells church at the time they were written, etc.
i do not share bart's conclusion, because i don't see it as a choice between the interpretation of many literal fundamentalists, or total rejection. but i must admit, i can understand how folks who have been burned by religious abuse might prefer to just chuck the whole thing, rather than try to work thru the thorny stuff.
but mainly it just strikes me as being unbiblical and unhelpful to try and aggressively attack those who find themselves put off by aggressive , attacking zealotry. help me understand your thinking here? even if you win an argument, in what way is Jesus' kingdom advanced?