“The great historian of religion Martin Marty once said every religion serves two functions: First, it is a message of personal salvation telling is how to get right with God; and second, it is a lens for interpreting the world. Historically, evangelicals have been good at the first functions- at "saving souls". But they have not been nearly so good at helping people to interpret the world around them- at providing a set of interrelated concepts that function as a lens to give a biblical view of areas like science, politics, economics, or bioethics. As Marty puts it, evangelicals have typically "accentuated personal piety and individual salvation, leaving men to their own devices to interpret the world around them.”

“We must look at the lens through we see the world, as well as the world we see, and that the lens itself shapes how we interpret the world.”

“There are all sorts of dream interpretations, Freud's being the most notorious, but I have always believed they served a simple eliminatory function, and not much more - that dreams are the psyche's way of taking a good dump every now and then.”

“The kind of people claiming to be incommunication with God today . . . they are enough to drive a real Christian crazy! And how about these evangelical types, performing miracles for money? Oh, there's big bucks in interpreting the gospel for idiots-or in having idiots interpret the gospel for you”

“All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”

“Everything in this world is based on interpretation, how we as people interpret the people and events and feelings around us. Then our interpretation defines us. Who we are is usually based on how we react to circumstances.”