My response in a recent Facebook discussion concerning the uncomfortable historical stories in the Bible about God ordering the killing of babies, et. al.
Part of believing that the Bible is the Word of God (not necessarily the words of God) is struggling with these difficult stories in the Bible (old and new testaments) and understanding the mindset of the people who wrote them and lived them. I often think that people ought to read the Bible like they read memoirs...with a healthy dose of caution to not interpret all of history by this one person's account, but to interpret this account in light of all of history.
I believe that the Bible is the word of God, but definitely not "100% truth" in the way that most fundamentalists mean it. It reveals my Truth to me, so I accept that as a part of my faith journey and identity. Ultimately, as a Christian, I see Jesus of Nazareth as the revelation of God to man, not a book. I don't believe the Bible is the only revelation of God to man or exhaustive or inerrant...I used to...honestly, I'm not sure what I believe dogmatically about these issues--I choose to be a questioning person rather than a dogmatic person. The Bible IS the story of peoples of faith...first, the Hebrews/Jews and then the Christians...I think the Truth is what those communities of faith bring to those stories. Unfortunately, those communities are a product of their time (and, unfortunately today, behind the times...but this was always the case-note the prophets in the Old Testament) and so you are right on to call out the xenophobia, racism, sexism, and power issues throughout the Bible. Beyond those cultural trappings, though, there is a struggle within the Bible itself...the story of the empowerment of women in the gospels and in the early church, side by side with Paul's (or the author writing in the name of the Apostle) misogynistic (and contradictory!) teachings on the role of women in the church...the laws of the Old Testament commanding the welcoming of strangers side by side with stories of the Israelites seeking to conquer their enemies (and the inflated, pseudo-historic accounts of their successes and failures in those endeavors), the teachings of Jesus against religious authority and the early church's struggle to have organization without institutional power and corruption...the picture in the Old Testament (and new at times) of a forgiving and gracious God beside a God who holds children accountable for the misdeeds of their ancestors. The Bible is the story of God trying to find humanity and it reflects the mess God finds us in, I believe. I think the nugget of truth is beyond all the cultural trappings and myth...we must constantly demyth (take the nugget of truth in the story out of the context of patriarchy, unscientific ideas, ancient concepts) and remyth (find the truth for us today). We do this with all historical writings, why should we not do this with the Bible? Fundamentalists would argue that the Bible is the Word (and, for them, the words) of God and shouldn't be examined this way. I say that we do a disservice to the scriptures and to God when we fail to truly study the Bible as both a historic and spiritual book. I think we should use the stories of sacred scriptures (and I would include others beside the Bible, for fundamentalists exist in every religion) like a lamppost, to guide our path...not like a drunk uses a lamppost--to prop himself up. Also, final note, the concept of "hell" in the Bible is pretty vague and includes ideas relating to time and eternity, so I don't fear for anyone in terms of hell the way that most Christians might...however, I do believe there are hells all around us and if Christians would spend more time rescuing people from those hells instead of trying to get people to sign on to a creed, we'd see a better world.
