Thoughts and Plans Concerning Politely Rejecting the Bible

I published my first book, Politely Rejecting the Bible, back in December of 2021. I had thrown myself into the project as hard as I could starting in 2020. First, I spent almost a year building a small personal library for biblical studies (it was during the COVID-19 quarantine so libraries were not accessible for most of that time) and outlining my material in a way that made sense to me at the time. I experimented with different tones—should I try to make it funny? should I go crazy with footnotes? and so forth—and agonized over word counts and other self-imposed parameters.

Then, when the book was finally done, I made a few bold choices with trying to market it, including through sponsored ads on Facebook. The end result felt surreal: I ended up with a very positive review from Publishers Weekly, a number of scathing personal attacks from random Christians on social media, and critical reviews from two Christian authors whose work I quoted in the book. Personally, I was having a great time, though some of the comments I received were so harsh that a few of my friends periodically checked in with me to see if I was doing okay (I was).

Blood, Lies, and Comedy: Assessing J. P. Holding’s Response to Politely Rejecting the Bible

[This old blog post has been restored thanks to the Internet Archive. Unfortunately, the formatting is a little wonky and the linked references no longer work.]

Christian apologist J. P. Holding has responded to some of the arguments I make in my book, Politely Rejecting the Bible, specifically those points where I engage with his work. I’ve already offered some follow-up remarks on one topic, related to Holding’s theory about Judas Iscariot’s death in the Gospel of Matthew. As I explained there, that was something I brought up in the book in order to give an example of why the debate over the Bible’s inerrancy requires more nuance, and although I think the point was lost on Holding, I don’t think that the manner of Judas’ death provides useful evidence against inerrancy, at least not in the context of the actual debate.

Judas Iscariot and Ahithophel: A Response to J. P. Holding

[This old blog post has been restored thanks to the Internet Archive. Unfortunately, the formatting is a little wonky and the linked references no longer work.]

I was delighted to see that a Christian apologist named J. P. Holding responded to some of my writing on his website. I’ve been familiar with Holding’s website since I was in college, and I interacted with some of his work directly in my book Politely Rejecting the Bible, so the experience of seeing him now critically tearing into my writing is nothing short of surreal. I only wish that he would have responded without being so contemptuous.