ANSWER<\/strong>: I hate it when people take something like feminism or patriarchy and pass it off, in the name of God, as the gospel. I hate it when people make the Bible into a collection of proof-texts for their favorite cause, or turn it into a weapon to cow people into submission with. I\u2019m passionate about letting the Bible \u201cbe itself,\u201d if that makes any sense. I hope it does.<\/p>\n However, I\u2019m probably misreading your question. Perhaps you want me to say something about my deepest-held doubts related to questions of faith and human experience. I want to say they run right across the board, and are all deeply-held. I would frighten myself terribly if I could not embrace both doubt and belief in the very depths of my being.<\/p>\n When I went to seminary for a year in Germany, among the many friends I made, most of whom are now excellent pastors throughout Deutschland, I almost had a cult following based on my joy in trashing everyone\u2019s favorite statement, \u201cGod is love.\u201d Such an absurd, ridiculous statement, I\u2019d say. I would then point out a litany of things in demonstration of the proposition\u2019s extreme counter-factuality. Yet I would do this without ceasing for a moment to believe that God is, nonetheless, love. How anyone can read 1 Corinthians 13, written by that hard-bitten man named Paul, and not know that it is true, every word of it, is beyond me. But if it\u2019s true, we are untrue.<\/p>\n (Second question for John Hobbins) What one historical or interpretative question related to the Bible or Christianity most troubles you? How do you deal with it? ANSWER: I hate it when people take something like feminism or patriarchy and pass it off, in the name of God, as the gospel. I hate it when people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-5278486699112399698?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\")