jazzact13,

I’m not suggesting that anyone decide what parts of the message to accept. I’m suggesting that we accept NONE of the first century WORLDVIEW but we should accept ALL of its principles about life, relationships, politics, and mission. Let’s leave the world view to the best minds that we have at any point in history. It will likely change soon.

I have no idea where you get the idea this has anything to do with pride. I feel it is much more humble to reject the idea that we can have the last word on the universe or God. It is more humble to realize that we only know what we know now and that could change. I’m making an attempt to leave my judgement out of the issue and leave ANY worldview issues out as well. What is left is a message that transcends time.

As far as picking and choosing, I’m clearly NOT doing that. I’m dividing the information of the bible into 2 categories of data. One is the intended message and the other is the byproduct of the storytellers situation:

1) messages about themes for living and building community

2) worldview (how people understand the universe and God or gods)

You can’t tell a story without communicating a great deal about your worldview but rarely is that your intended message. The point of the Bible is not to indoctrinate people into a particular worldview that was held at that time. The purpose was to communicate particular messages/themes (item#1). Part of any story that we must understand is that it is told through a worldview but that is not what it attempts to teach.

It is ironic that traditional Christianity seems to have adopted the worldview which tags along with the message from its ancient storytellers but often ignored its message.

Also I think you clearly have the degree of difficulty backwards. Loving your neighbor is the difficult aspect of Jesus message which I’ve chosen to keep (along with ALL his other teachings and messages). Believing YOUR own beliefs make you one of the “few” that get salvation is pretty easy. Every religion seems to do that without much effort. It seems like you have opted for the easy option and I’ve opted for the narrow road.