Ralph Elliott, the seminary professor whose commentary on Genesis became symbolic of the battle over biblical literalism in the Southern Baptist Convention, has died at age 97. Elliott died Sunday, Oct. 23, in Paoli, Pa. A family funeral service was…
Learning humility together as we read the Bible
Just as the Bible itself was a community project, so also God invites us to interpret Scripture in community. Yet anybody who has been in church for five minutes knows Christians disagree on how to apply the Bible in everyday…
It’s time to stop using the Bible as a sacred weapon to oppress LGBTQ people
For the last 76 years, evangelicals have been using the Bible as a sacred weapon to oppress LGBTQ people. While many people are under the impression that the word “homosexuality” has “always been in the Bible,” the reality is that…
Keep your Bible where it belongs
When I took my first Bible class in college, I was required to memorize the books of the Bible. A lot of people in my class found that exercise of writing out the books of the Bible from memory in…
Beware: The chapter and verse divisions and the internal commentary in English Bibles may fail us
The familiar division of the Bible into chapters and verses helps us locate our Scriptures of interest. Yet, it took 1,200 to 1,500 years before translators and publishers put them there; and, thankfully so. However, like dishwashers, iPhones and all…
No, Dan Patrick, God did not write the U.S. Constitution
“We were a nation founded upon, not the words of our founders, but the words of God because he wrote the Constitution.” So said Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick at the second Conservative Political Action Conference held this year with the theme “Awake, Not…
Belief in a literal interpretation of the Bible at all-time low among Americans, Gallup reports
While response to recent Supreme Court rulings on abortion, religious liberty and gun control have shown how widely out of step conservative evangelicals in America are from the rest of the population, there’s fresh data showing a similar gap on…
Teach Baptist history and Bible history to debunk Christian nationalism, historians say
Failure to teach Baptist history in Baptist churches has made congregants susceptible to Christian nationalism, according to Baptist historians from two generations. In Baptist churches today, the history of the movement is rarely mentioned or taught any more, and this…
Professor writes book to explain his journey from inerrantist to historicist
Like many Christians, Bill Thomason was raised to view the Bible as the inerrant word of God derived from pristine, original manuscripts penned by the individuals actually credited with authoring them. “I grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist church believing…