The Perennial Conviction That Those

[t]o Argue That Something Is So Because It Is In The Bible Is More Than Intellectually Bankrupt.

Only The Most Unapologetic Biblical Fundamentalists, For Instance, Take Every Biblical Injunction Literally. If We All Took All Scripture At The Same Level Of Authority, Then We Would Be More Open To Slavery, To The Subjugation Of Women, To Wider Use Of Stoning. Jesus Himself Spoke Out Frequently Against Divorce In The Strongest Of Terms.

An Unexamined Faith Is Not Worth Having, For Fundamentalism And Uncritical Certitude Entail The Rejection Of One Of The Great Human Gifts: That Of Free Will, Of The Liberty To Make Up Our Own Minds Based On Evidence And Tradition And Reason.

The Fact Is That America Has Been At Her Most Prosperous When Government And The Private Sector Have Been Not At War, But In A Wary, If Often Underplayed, Alliance. History Is Unmistakable On This Point.

If Heaven Is Understood More As God's Space On Earth Than As An Ethereal Region Apart From The Essential Reality We Know, Then What Happens On Earth Matters Even More Than We Think, For The Christian Life Becomes A Continuation Of The Unfolding Work Of Jesus, Who Will One Day Return To Set The World To Rights.