Kent’s Recommended Read:
Sinclair Lewis:
Elmer Gantry
So the characters in Elmer Gantry nitpick the bible. Doesn’t shake my faith any.
I downloaded Elmer Gantry from the internet and am reading it off my pocket PC. But click on that book cover if you’d rather have it on Kindle.
So far it’s nothing like the movie. I just got past the bit where the “Christers” are trying to save Elmer, and his atheist roommate keeps quoting Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll at him.
I’ve read Paine and Ingersoll. They have a lot of good points about iffy portions of the bible. They spend more time ridiculing it than asking honest questions; and that’s mainly because they don’t have honest questions; they just want to rip on the bible. So let them have their fun; it doesn’t disturb me any. My relationship with God isn’t based on the bible. It’s based on God.
I get in trouble whenever I say that, so let me clarify.
I greatly respect the bible. I believe it to be inspired and quote from it often. I believe God’s character is well-reflected in its pages. As so many Christians point out, the bible points us to God. However, the bible is no substitute for God, and regardless of how much I may respect the bible, I don’t confuse the two. When God tells me something and it’s not in the bible, I don’t respond, "That’s not in the bible, so that’s not from God." If I were to do that, my god would be the bible.
I get in trouble with Fundamentalists whenever I say that, but that’s only because the truth can hurt.