The UU Women’s Federation board has unanimously endorsed Peter Morales for president of the UUA. For a while it seemed like all the powers-that-be were lining up behind Laurel Hallman. Now it gets a little more interesting.

David Plotz, an agnostic Jew, read the Bible for the very first time for a series of articles on Slate.com last year. He put up a “what I learned” post today, and though he soured on the biblical God after reading his book, he has gathered some unlikely new personal heroes:

As I read the book, I realized that the Bible’s greatest heroes—or, at least, my greatest heroes—are not those who are most faithful, but those who are most contentious and doubtful: Moses negotiating with God at the burning bush, Gideon demanding divine proof before going to war, Job questioning God’s own justice, Abraham demanding that God be merciful to the innocent of Sodom. They challenge God for his capriciousness, and demand justice, order, and morality, even when God refuses to provide them. Reading the Bible has given me a chance to start an argument with God about the most important questions there are, an argument that can last a lifetime.

Whenever I listen in to evangelicals talking about the Bible and how to use it, I find myself somewhere between being amused and being perplexed—because their views about the Bible just aren’t biblical.

There are two main reasons, biblically speaking, why they’re wrong. I think the way I’ll be using the Bible to make my point is something evangelicals would recognize from evangelical pulpits, which is to say I don’t think I’m using godless liberal exegetical methods.

One, the Bible makes a strong claim about the identity of “the Word of God.” In John 1, it’s quite clear that Jesus is the Word of God. Unless Jesus has been incarnated twice—once as a human being and then again as a book—the Bible is not the Word of God. Evangelicals ought to choose which they worship, Jesus or a book about Jesus.

Two, the only claim the Bible makes about anything approaching inerrancy is 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. (NRSV)

That’s a low ball claim for biblical authority when it’s compared to what evangelicals would have us believe about the Bible. It’s a pragmatic view: scripture should be kept around because it helps us do good in the world. It doesn’t say scripture is useful for making truth claims. You can argue that truth claims about the Bible are necessary to equip the people of God for good works, but you are arguing that; the Bible says no such thing.

Evangelicals’ need for the Bible to be true in ways the Bible doesn’t even need itself to be true belies the sin of idolatry—idolatry of the very Bible they’re making false claims about. Given a choice between the reasons the Bible claims it’s important and ones they’ve made up themselves, they’d rather make the life of Jesus a second-rate source of authority next to their own made-up reasons why their ideology about the Bible is truer than true.

As of 10:30 pm EST, the Unitarian Universalist Congegation of Atlanta became the largest congregational Facebook group, beating out All Souls Tulsa (#2) and All Souls DC (#3) with 184 186 191 members and rising. I needn’t point out that we’re the smallest congregation of the three, by a long shot.

We are the champions!

Special thanks to Tim and a youther for helping put us over the top!

Tomorrow I wear my Cowboy Victory Hat of Victory and Winning to work. I trust that you will do the same, as is only right and proper.

I’ve surprised myself by how dedicated a reader of Internet Monk I’ve become of late. That means both of my favorite Christian bloggers—Real Live Preacher being the other—are Southern Baptist ministers. I told you I’m surprised.

Yesterday, iMonk posted what reads to me like a defense of the Christian doctrine of universalism. It’s brilliant, and any UU should give it a read. UUs who don’t use god-talk might not find it as engaging as I do, but it’s a good reminder that universalism has strong Biblical support, even if most other Southern Baptist ministers would tell you otherwise.

iMonk always gets good comments, and the discussion quickly turns to sin. Sin, some of his readers would have it, is a real problem for God. He’s quite hung up on it, it turns out. Can’t see past it, even. So much so that he has to be tricked into forgiving humanity, on a case by case basis, by torturing and killing his Son instead of us.

A god hindered by sin is an unusual character. Mythology is engaging and entertaining precisely because the gods are hindered—by each other and by us—but it is usually because of some specific god or some specific person, and because of some specific actions taken, not because of a general case like all-sin-everywhere.

Their God is a superhero with a fatal weakness. It is as though Superman has added omni-benevolence to his super powers and now has the power to grant everyone eternal life in Heaven. But in an unfortunate turn of events Sin has replaced Kryptonite as his one weakness.

He writhes under the effect of Sin, unable to use his new power of omni-benevolence in the presence of a sinner. The only thing that can set things right is for him to set up Superboy—disguised as a non-superhero—to be tortured and killed on our behalf so that, now, whenever the use of his omni-benevolence is restricted by Sin, Superman can rub the blood of Superboy on sinners and make it all better. (Superboy blood is magic! Tell your family and friends!) Superboy blood is made available planet-wide so that people can douse themselves in it and thereby unhinder Superman in his quest to embody truth, justice, and the American way.

I don’t get Calvinism or substitutionary atonement theory. Their devotees don’t realize how hindered a God they worship. For being all-sovereign, he certainly can’t get much god stuff done without a lot of torture and tears and blood.

You can create your own at Obamicon.me. And here are some more: