Drew, I never would have been able to put it all together in my head then articulate it, but I think you've hit on what's at the foundation of my belief about the Bible: "once you embrace the limited and flawed nature of scripture as it has inhabited culture after culture only to serve the purpose of being a witness to god alone, you have permission to go deeper into it and understand god more closely." Thanks for your thoughts and wisdom, and for bringing it all into context by looking at other belief systems, too.

MoJoJules, wow, Seth Donovan's quote is a pretty amazing way to think about a place for confessing your faith, while simultaneously embracing all of who you are. "I need a place to de-compartmentalize." So powerful and true. And what you wrote about the work we need to do as the Church: "It is the need to come into community, discussion, etc. and let go of the right to be right, but allow everyone to be wrong." Radical and absolutely necessary. My mind is buzzing with so many thoughts &amp; ideas related to this. Thanks!

Dave, that's very true, Jesus was all about going and doing likewise. Growing up in the church, I think somewhere along the line I started to place Paul's writings above the gospels. Paul is the one who likes to remind us of all the things we shouldn't do, but he was also a man (not the son of God) who was writing letters to specific people with specific issues. And you're right—I need to shift to a "do this" frame of mind, and be sure to model those good things in my life, as much as possible. (That's what the best parents do, right? :)