Good Point, Bad Exegesis
John the Methodist on Locusts and Honey has an excellent post on sexual ethics and the exegesis behind it.
He discusses the misuse of the story of David and Bathsheba in order to make a point that was nonetheless a good one. When he encountered this in a small group discussion, John was silent on the exegetical issue so as to not interfere with the main point, which was good.
This reminds me of going through 40 days of purpose in our church. As we went through the book The Purpose-Driven Church, I was regularly annoyed by the use of scripture, even when the points were good, and might have been made effectively using different scripture. With my field being Biblical languages, I was particularly disturbed by the “translation shopping” approach in which he used whatever version gave words that would let him integrate it with his text. This often resulted in a phrase taken out of context.
I kept this between my wife and myself, and didn’t tell anyone else in the church for the same reason John cites: I didn’t want to weaken the good point by pointing out the poor use of scripture. On the other hand I’m concerned that if we constantly make good points while abusing scripture, how do we deal effectively with abuse of scripture to make bad points?
