Tony Jones

To rehash the three points  I’ve made about using “rightly” and “proper” to manage interpretations of Scripture:

1.  Using “rightly” and “proper” effectively split’s the community of believers into two camps—insiders and outsiders. 2.  “Rightly” and “proper” are extra biblical means of defining belief in Jesus and Paul‘s letters. 3.  Using “rightly” and “proper” are usually practices carried out by insiders and it privileges the insider’s camp over the outsider‘s camp.            

So, in short, talking about “rightly” understanding some piece of Scripture or having a “proper interpretation” is a way that some conservative evangelicals manage the abundant possibilities opened up by the Holy Bible and a way that they sustain their particular visions of faith.

Over the past several decades, with the aid of media technologies, some Christian pastors have attained a celebrity status. We see this not only with the televangelists of the 1970s and 1980s, but even more recently we see that some Christian pastors have gained followers and advocates, especially through the publication of books and through their use of the Internet. The celebrity pastors and their advocates form quarreling factions of self-declared believers in Jesus the Christ.