A New Look at an Old Word

A New Look at an Old Word

Those of us who participated in or at least lived through the hot debates on “inerrancy” that divided the Southern Baptist Convention will recall that a favorite term of its adherents was (and is) theopneustos, a rare word that appears only once in the Bible, in 2...
The Bible Doesn’t Tell Me So

The Bible Doesn’t Tell Me So

An email from someone I had never met arrived in my inbox in February 2019. We’ll call her Jenny. She had heard me speaking on a series of podcasts produced by the Bible Society, talking about some of the stories of sexually violent men in the Old Testament. As a...
‘God of Violence Yesterday, God of Love Today?’

‘God of Violence Yesterday, God of Love Today?’

“There’s just so much wrath in the Bible!” “The God of the Old Testament is so different from the God of the New Testament!” “Why is there so much violence in the Old Testament?” If I had an English pound for every time someone had said something like this to me, I’d,...
Unsure About Accepting LGBTQ Folks? God Gave You the Keys

Unsure About Accepting LGBTQ Folks? God Gave You the Keys

Very few biblical scholars will deny the possibility – even if only the slightest possibility in the minds of the most conservative scholars – that the biblical texts used to condemn LGBTQ persons have been overplayed. Most Christian students of the Bible will concede...
Mr. Vice President, It’s About Your Interpretation

Mr. Vice President, It’s About Your Interpretation

Vice President Mike Pence addressed the graduating class at Liberty University over the weekend. Liberty’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., has been an adamant supporter of Pence, President Donald Trump and their policies. During his address, Pence warned graduates about...