Scot McKnight shared this Barna infographic:
The survey seems to assume rather than demonstrate that those who take anything other than an inerrantist view of the Bible do not read the Bible as often as inerrantists do, if they read it at all.
That seems to me to be inherently problematic. But even if correct, it is still misleading. The people who read the Bible without the constraint of a dogma about inerrancy are reading the actual Bible, while those who subscribe to inerrancy are reading an imaginary one that is filtered through a distorting lens. Why that should be considered praiseworthy, and described as “engaged” with the Bible or “friendly” towards it, is beyond me.
If anything, those who read the Bible honestly, however often they do so, should be the ones considered to be “engaged” and/or “friendly,” while those who impose inerrancy as a framework should be labeled “antagonistic.”
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In