If some parts of the Bible can't be trusted how can any of it?

I always enjoy reading your take on these issues, Preach. You're right, there is much immorality in the bible. The worst of it is in the OT, of course, but there are bad things in the NT as well.What I think so many fundamentalists lose sight of is the fact that if there is a God, surely he knew what he was doing when he gave us the ability to reason for ourselves. Perhaps Hamlet said it best, in Act IV, Scene IV: "He that made us" is, of course, God, and Hamlet is pointing out that the ability to reason is what separates us from the beasts. We can learn from the past and anticipate the future, unlike other creatures. God did not give us this ability so that we might eschew it in order to blindly follow a book. Of course, Hamlet wasn't speaking about the bible, but his logic extends to it.

Born2Preach writes:

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...it's just that the only connections I have with people that are in the ministry and are willing to help the up-and-coming newbies happen to be Southern Baptists.

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This gives me an opportunity to say something good about these people. They really are at least somewhat better than many of their fundamentalist brethen, at least because they are more willing to help others in need no matter who those others are. Southern Baptists (as well as Baptists of all stripes, from what I've seen) will be the first to help you if you've suffered a catastrophe of some sort, such as an auto accident, a tornado, flood, serious illness, etc. They want to help no matter who you are or how strongly they might disagree with you on political and/or theological issues.When new treatments for AIDS were developed in the 90s, many local victims participated in studies on these treatments and were brought back to near-perfect health. When the studies were complete, those victims (the vast majority of them, actually) who couldn't afford to keep taking the new drugs were in danger of reverting to ill health. Eventually, legislation was passed to help them, but in the interim many local congregations, including Southern Baptists, actually saved the day for these people by providing money to pay for the drugs. I was flabbergasted to see it, and it changed my opinion of them. I will always be grateful for what they did. I still disagree with almost everything they stand for and I'm still disgusted with their judgemental attitudes, but I have to admit that when these people see someone in need, apparently no matter who it is they will do what they can to help.