Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism
A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture
Chapter One
A Preamble:
Sex Drove Me to the Bible
Sex drove me to the Bible!
This statement is literally true, but not in the sense that most would interpret it. In 1988 my book entitled Living in Sin? A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality was published by Harper and Row. In that book I was led to question traditional religious attitudes and traditional religious definitions on a wide variety of sexual issues, from homosexuality to premarital living arrangements. There was an immediate outcry from conservative religious circles in defence of something they called biblical morality.
Proof Texting and Prejudice
This appeal to the Bible to justify and to sustain an attitude that was clearly passing away had a very familiar ring to me. I grew up in America's segregated South with its rich evangelical biblical heritage. Time after time I heard the Bible quoted to justify segregation. I was told that Ham, Noah's son, had looked on Noah in his nakedness, and for this sin he had been cursed to servitude and ... read full excerpt from: Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture ebook
