Authority of scripture?

This phrase is the issue that is purported to be at the center of the controversy in the proposed split of the Pacific Southwest region from American Baptist Churches. At the meeting last night, a number of speakers indirectly claimed that as their primary value while indirectly accusing the rest of the denomination of abandoning the Bible.

This makes me very angry.

I believe the Bible. I do not take it literally and I do not worship it, but scriptures are authoritative in my faith. The issue on the table with PSW is homosexuality, so let me make some statements about it. I have studied this issue for years. I have looked carefully at the Greek and Hebrew. I have read the scholars. I have examined the cultural settings of the verses under consideration. I come to one inescapable conclusion. Homosexuality as we know it in our culture is not mentioned in the Bible anywhere. There are no Biblical proscriptions against two committed homosexual people having sexual relations with one another. There are Biblical prescriptions to love one another, to encourage one another, to enable one another to use their gifts for the wholeness of the kindom of God. Because I believe in the authority of scripture, I must be welcoming and affirming of homosexual folk.

So where does that put us? Presumably the pastor who raised the question last night believes that scripture prohibits homosexual relationships under any circumstances. He says that the authority of scripture requires him to take that stand. I say it is a poor reading of scripture, a poor hermeneutic, an interpretation colored more by culture and homophobia than by an unbiased reading of what the Bible actually says. I read the same Bible... study it at least as diligently... claim to follow the same Jesus. I believe in the authority of scripture. So where do we differ? In the authority of interpretation! He obviously believes that he knows the mind of God and that there is no room for dissent from his interpretation. Because I disagree with him, I must be throwing out the Bible. There is a word for that stand - hubris.