text: I would like to add that I agree with you regarding such sweeping statements. It does look bigoted. I apologize. I'm not denying the merits of your criticism, but I do have a lot of unspoken reason behind my comments.  For the record, I LOVE the Bible. I have read almost all of it, missing only a few OT books. I've read the NT, the gospels a few times, and I did my senior research project for my degree on Paul, comparing his ministry to psychological theory because of his extraordinary success as an evangelical. 
  
  But, I understand the Bible very differently than most evangelicals and fundamentalists, who I see as being quite confused about the difference between the Bible and the church, and spirituality. That confusion has been a force for violence for a long time - witch hunts, the inquisition, religious persecution, the crusades, manifest destiny, genocide, ad nauseam. Christianity isn't at fault here, people are. Their beliefs don't seem to make much difference.