Problems in our approach to Scripture

1. Over-familiarity:
--so used to reading a passage and glibly finding the meaning. Easy. God meant this, here's the lesson, here's the moral, la-di-dah.

2. Reading Selectively:
How many times have I heard a preacher skim over a bunch of problematic, confusing verses to get to the one palatable verse that he wants to talk about? Or how about whole books of the Bible that are never talked about? Really, we get our working belief system from a very small slice of the Bible.

3. Selective Literalism
--Christian teachers take some passages literally, word for word, and then painstakingly explain why other passages don't literally mean what they seem to be saying.
-- for some passages, preachers/teachers insist that we don't question or challenge one word of the verse- but then those same leaders will "soften" the interpretation of other passages when it seems necessary. For example:
In one passage, Jesus says that the only way a woman could divorce and still be right with God is if her husband is "unfaithful." But how about domestic abuse? And you'd be hard pressed to find a pastor who would counsel a woman to stay with her husband under these circumstances. Clearly the pastor is applying Love and Common Sense to his reading of the scriptures. If we're just to be literal, then "unfaithfulness" is the ONLY justifiable reason for divorce. So pure literalism seems highly problematic as a way of reading the Scriptures...

4. Schooled only to understand, appreciate, revere and obey the Scriptures- not how to ask questions- real questions.
-- I think the practice of asking questions, of being confused by what the Scriptures say, is a healthy practice. The more we open our eyes and acknowledge how difficult and complex the Scriptures can be- this will help us avoid over-familiarity, and over-simplifying of God, and perhaps also over-simplifying other religions as just "wrong" and Christianity as so "right"

So how am I supposed to approach the Scriptures?

I don't know.