crazy stuff
there’s this book that says all kinds of crazy things
talks about the sun stopping in the sky and people living more than 900 years and a woman punished for disobedience by being transformed into salt in defiance of physical law
talks about how to treat your slaves talks about a guy whose strength came from his hair and there’s also a talking snake
one of the last things in the book talks about corpses floating into the sky and four personifications of different badnesses riding horses
and this book has influenced human beings and their behavior unbelievably
fulfilling the wish of a bunch of men who convened about 1700 years ago and cobbled up the book which is really two books which is really a megacollection of transcriptions from oral tradition and accounts not from eyewitnesses but from people influenced by whatever happened decades before
believe what your mind tells you is true my friends wield your faith find your wisdoms and become the best representatives of humanity you possibly can be
and i will heartily do the same
baffledly confusedly searchingly
One with Clay, Image and Text 
If you can convince yourself that the Bible is a mishmash of bizarre content, then you can conveniently ignore the coherent thread of promise and fulfillment, sin and redemption that runs throughout the whole 66 books,, and you can dismiss the power and love of God that is at its center. There are lots of things about the Bible that I don’t understand, but what I do understand is lifegiving. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 and then there’s Romans 5:8 — “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
As far as influence on behavior, what about the schools and hospitals? What about Mother Teresa? The ugly blot of the Crusades is not the whole story.
I’ve been a follower of Jesus for over 50 years now, and my heart hurts for all the people I care about who just can’t see who he is.
My friend, I look for wisdom everywhere. I believe I found some in both the Old and New Testaments. I have read and reread the Book of Ecclesiastes and the Sermon on the Mount.
I never convinced myself that the Bible is a mishmash of bizarre content. But I respectfully submit that you, Rhonda, have chosen to conveniently ignore certain contradictions/impossibilities that riddle (pun carefully chosen) Scripture. You have looked for truth and beauty and have found it; I applaud you. You have discarded that which doesn’t fit your notions. I understand that.
As for behavior, you don’t have to go back nearly as far as the Crusades to find monstrous behavior. Consider the scandal of the Catholic priesthood molestation of children, and the systemic cover-up of same. More mildly, consider the callousness of Joel Osteen refusing to allow his palatial property to serve as sanctuary for hurricane victims.
I also ask you to consider that the way you see Jesus is unique to you, that no one else on Earth has the identical conception (pun carefully chosen) of the Christ. Please don’t let your heart hurt for conceptions of Jesus that differ from yours. All of them do, even if they are less tangential than mine.
We could talk forever. At heart, I am convinced, is recognition that Jesus is God in the flesh (incarnate) and he came for purpose stated in John 3:16. Lots of physical “impossibilities” involved, but the One who made it in the first place can handle those. And finally, the people involved in the failures you listed have to answer to Him–as do I.