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The Bible is filled with wisdom. It is also laden with contradiction, archaic tribal customs, and passages that exult a vengeful God. Scripture has countless mixed messages, outdated social ideas, and cultural practices rooted in both mythical and historical background that need to be interpreted.

Some religious groups insist that no education is necessary to understand Scripture. They argue that the Bible is the literal word of God and need simply be read. That's naive.

The faithful need all the knowledge, spiritual formation, life experience, and grace possible to interpret and understand Scripture. The probability of dreadful misunderstanding is enormous.

The support of slavery, relegation of women to secondary status, justification for anti-Semitism, gay bashing and, for groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and some juries, license to kill, are obvious examples.

"The Bible has extraordinary gifts to offer," Gushee assures his readers, but says neither the laity nor the clergy can be trusted with the text. "The faithful cannot trust religious leaders to interpret God's Word by themselves, but the laity need their guidance. Reading Scripture together resolves both problems." Which means what? For Gushee, it seems to mean that the clergy and laity can explain the text away to each other until it doesn't mean anything.

More articles

Evangelical agenda:

• In evangelical world, a liberal view steps up | Following Carter's lead, progressives work to transform movement (MSNBC)
• Evangelicals embrace new global priorities | Some top leaders want to broaden the focus from culture-war 'family issues' to helping the world's poor (Beliefnet)

Church life:

• Islamic center to open in Allentown church | Some congregants say location of Whitehall center is inconvenient (The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.)
• Churchgoers upset by parking clampdown | Car parking giant NCP today denied their parking wardens were targeting parishioners who parked on roads around a seaside resort church (PA, UK.)
• Buildings 'holding back' Church | Maintaining the Church of England's historic buildings is holding back dioceses financially, a report says (BBC)

St. Paul's cathedral restoration:

• The glory of St Paul's is unwrapped | Sir Christopher Wren's mighty St Paul's Cathedral has been covered with scaffolding and polythene for so long that it has been compared to a parcel lost in the post (The Telegraph, London)
• Interior of St Paul's - brighter than even Wren saw it | £11m renovation restores cathedral to a standard not seen since it was built (The Guardian, London)

Qur'an sign church withdraws from SBC, other groups:

• Church leaves BSC, SBC after sign controversy | The church that received national media attention late last month when its sign said the Muslim holy book should be put in a toilet has withdrawn from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the Baptist State Convention and the Sandy Run association (Biblical Recorder, N.C.)
• N.C. church at heart of Koran controversy withdraws from SBC (Baptist Press)

Religion & homosexuality:

• Church fury as ban on gay adoptions is lifted | Gay and unmarried couples in Scotland are to be allowed to adopt under proposals to be unveiled today by Holyrood ministers (The Times, London)
• Anglicans spurn gay church cash | The Anglican Church of Kenya has rejected funding from the American Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion reported in London yesterday (The Nation, Kenya)

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June (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49