texts of hate to reveal God;s love

I thought this was really lightweight material, especially considering the author is usually intellectually stimulating and thought provoking. I've read numerous books and other resources that provide much more material, in greater detail, with less unnecessary verbiage while still getting their points across. I've seen more and better from Christians, agnostics, and atheists. I was very disappointed in this book. Not remotely recommended. ( )

The subtitle of this book is Exposing the Bible’s Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love. I read this book a few years back, and the reason it came to mind today is because I am feeling overwhelmed by the aggressiveness of anti-Bible crusaders. Unquestionably, there are many passages in the Bible that are not only questionable theology, but downright appalling. Unquestionably, there are “Christians” today who pounce on these texts in order to promote discrimination or oppression. But the majority of Christians do not; the majority of Christians worship a God of love, and either spiritualize or completely discard those scriptures that reveal, not God’s will, but human weakness.

Can we really worship a God who murdered all the firstborn males in every Egyptian household? How about a God who stops the sun in the sky, providing more daylight so that Joshua can slaughter more of his enemies? Would the God you worship instruct Samuel to “Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass”?

Is it ok to possess slaves, or sell your daughter into slavery? Should cursing or violating the Sabbath be cause for death? Is it right to stone disobedient children? Of course not, neither today or 2,500 years ago, and we know this.

How about the treatment of women as chattel? Encouragement of homophobia? Anti-Semitism? Spong guides us into a more liberal understanding of the Bible, pointing out the texts that exhibit human thinking, human fear, and comparing them to texts where the love of God shows through, and briefly touching on his vision of the Kingdom of God. It’s true that this book is one of the more negative of Spong’s works, but it sets us up for books yet to come. ( )

I like Spong. The retired Episcopal bishop does a fair job generally in trying to incorporate the explosion of 1st century knowledge in the past generation to correct and align Christian theology with some semblance of reality.

The problem with Sins of Scripture is that Spong either needs to be more careful with his research or he needs a better editor.

That errors of fact and ignorance that creep into his text are irritating. He repeatedly refers to Andrea Yates, the Texas woman who drowned her five children, as "Agatha Yarnell."

He writes that the world's population has doubled in 30 years; it hasn't. He believes there's a population explosion under way that threatens human survival; there isn't. The decline in birthrates worldwide since 1962 has begun to be felt. Population is falling in many countries and is expected to peak globally in 2040 before beginning a long and steep fall.

The errors of fact and subtance are embarrassing to read, and it undermines the credibility of his theological arguments.

His book also tries to make the case about the bible as a source of hatred, intolerance, discrimination, inequality and slavery. And he does as good a job as any, I suppose. But you have to dig through an awful lot of manure before you find the pony in this book. ( )

Bible > Bible > Interpretation and criticism (Exegesis) > Religion