Bella, I'm glad you found my blog and enjoyed the post! You're right—the Bible is being distorted all the time by people—I do it too, even when I'm trying hard not to. I'm not sure there's any way to completely avoid that, other than to keep praying for wisdom and discernment as we read. Regarding your last statement, about the Bible and homosexuality, I'm a bit confused about what you're saying. I'm not a theologian, but from my perspective the Bible isn't completely clear about much of anything, other than the absolutes: loving God and loving your neighbor. When you take into consideration, for example, who Paul was specifically writing to (and when, where &amp; why), the applications for today get even more fuzzy. That doesn't mean the Bible isn't absolutely relevant in our lives now, 2009, in the US. And it doesn't mean that all Christians have to believe all the same things to be a part of the same family. I guess that's the main point of my post—that and making sure we don't hurt one another in the process of trying to do what we think is right.

Sam, Amen to this, sister: "I wish we could be more focused on feeding the hungry than worried about each other’s doctrinal failings." That's what saddens me the most when churches get caught up in debates about issues like homosexuality and ordaining women—so much time and energy and passion directed at our own insistences of right and wrong, rather than loving and caring for the least among us. (Thanks for sharing the great L’Engle quote, too!)