"...Band insists 'No reasonable person takes the whole Bible literally.'"

[Htom Sirveaux]

Baptist Church Cancels Gungor Event Over Views on Bible; Band Insists 'No Reasonable Person Takes the Entire Bible Literally'

By Leonardo Blair , CP Reporter

Highlighting that a Baptist church recently canceled one their events due to a swirling controversy over their views on the Bible, Christian couple Michael and Lisa Gungor of the Grammy nominated, Dove award-winning band Gungor affirmed their faith in God Wednesday and insisted that "NO REASONABLE PERSON takes the entire Bible completely literally."

(SNIP)

"Despite our best efforts, people have assumed because we sing a lot about 'creation,' for example, that we must be young-earth creationists. So, no World Magazine, Charismanews, Christian Post, and whoever else is talking about this…Gungor is not, and has never been a fundamentalist band seeking to spread young earth, biblical literalism across the planet," he added.

(SNIP)

"It's kind of weird to me that so many people seem to be talking about this, because from what I know of Christians, A LOT of us don't take these things literally. I would be very surprised to find a single respected and educated theologian or biblical scholar that believes that one MUST read Noah's flood completely literally down to the last detail to be 'orthodox.' That's crazy!" noted Gungor.

He argued that the literal interpretation of the Bible has more to do with culture than anything else.

(SNIP)

"In fact, God is both inside and outside of your huddle. And you can still love God and love people and read those early Genesis stories as myth with some important things to teach us. Not all of you will be ready to do that, and that's perfectly ok. But know that if you create these dichotomies where we force people to either fall into the camp of scientifically blind biblical literalism or a camp where they totally write off the Bible as a complete lie, you're going to rob a lot of people of some of the richness that the Bible offers," he noted.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/baptist-church-cancels-gungor-event-over-views-on-bible-band-insists-no-reasonable-person-takes-the-entire-bible-literally-124485/

Hopefully this band has a lot of fans among evangelicals and fundamentalists who might listen to these things coming from someone they already like.

[atreides1]

1. I wonder which Christians they know?

"It's kind of weird to me that so many people seem to be talking about this, because from what I know of Christians, A LOT of us don't take these things literally. I would be very surprised to find a single respected and educated theologian or biblical scholar that believes that one MUST read Noah's flood completely literally down to the last detail to be 'orthodox.' That's crazy!"


The fact that they were canceled, shows that yes indeed, some Christians do take the Bible literally!!! I guess those must be the crazy ones...

[Prophet 451]

6. Virtually no Christian takes the whole Bible literally

Even the most ardent literalist fundie picks and chooses which verses they obey. That's why they don't stone gays or traffic slaves and why Conservative Christians (tm) seem to have disregarded everything Jesus had to say about aiding teh poor.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. The operative word in that phrase is "reasonable".

Reasonable is a virtue that religious zealots do not possess.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. If you already admit that the whole thing isn't literal

then who gets to choose which parts are to be taken literally, and which aren't?

[Htom Sirveaux]

5. Yeah, things get a lot more complicated and uncertain.

People might actually have to wrestle with the text, and learn more about the cultures in which the Bible was produced and the events of ancient history, and archaeology and science. And they might not all agree, so they might have to learn to respect people who disagree with them because they can see that they've put as much time and care into interpreting the Bible as anyone else. And maybe they don't have all the answers right away, so they have to learn to be comfortable with that, too.

[okasha]

4. Both extreme positions are irrational.

[edhopper]

9. What is the other extreme position?

The fundie literalists and the.....?

[okasha]

10. "the camp where they totally write off the Bible

as a complete lie," as the OP puts it.

[edhopper]

11. Where does it say that?

In the OP?

[okasha]

12. Last sentence in the quote.

[edhopper]

13. See it now.

[cbayer]

7. It's impossible to take the whole bible literally.

It is full of contradictions.

[Iggo]

8. Have a wonderful day.