I do apologise if my comment has hurt you. I know it was not our main agenda to attack you as such, but simply to make a point. It does make me sad to know it made you very unhappy. But please see it from our point of view too.

Yes, we are all not perfect and the God we serve is a forgiving God. There is SO much joy that comes from the mercy of God. His mercy is with us everyday…and boy don’t I know it! But we should not take the responsibility and the honour to deliver truth lightly.

I hope by now you have found some peace. With love

Olive Oliverio

We have Anglican vicars in Australia who are modernist, postmodernist, liberal or evangelical. On which side of the theological spectrum do you place yourself?

The Anglican church down the road from where I live has a well lit sign out front. This week’s message is, “Jesus is our Prozac.”

Sincerely, Spencer Gear, Hervey Bay, Qld.

Thanks you for taking the time to write. It is of course not my intention to unnecessarily offend or hurt another believer. I apologise if I have. In fact my intention is the same as yours: “trying, as best I can, to follow a path that I believe – in faith, hope and love – that God has called me to take.”

I too am aware of how journalists can distort things. It had happened to me on numerous occasions. And of course there was no book to read when my piece was written. I am not even sure if it is available here in Australia. If you thought it worthwhile, you might send me a copy, and I can see how things square with the press accounts.

But that is the real question here. Are you saying that the press accounts are completely wrong, and that all of the quotes attributed to you are not at all accurate? If that is the case, I will of course publically apologise at once. But you have not clearly stated that this is the case in your comment. Indeed, you have not denied any of it thus far.

So let me, in all due respect, put it to you most candidly: Does your book make Eve out to be some sort of sex-obsessed man-eater? Does it portray Goliath as a celebrity binge drinker? Do your stories suggest that Noah’s wife wants to kill him?

And did you in fact make this statement?: “I wanted to write a book that tells the most important Bible stories in a way that relishes them rather than tries to make any particular religious point. After all, who knows what the point is?”

Again with all due respect, can I suggest that if you did state this, then it is a most curious thing indeed for a vicar – or any shepherd of Christ’s flock – to say. I would have thought that it is your job to know – as much as possible – what the Word of God is teaching, and not treat it like some grist for a deconstructionist mill.

The biblical stories are in fact seeking to make a particular religious – indeed a particular theological – point. God is expressing real truths through the narratives found in His Word. I would have thought that all Bible-believing Christians understood this.

If I had penned a book for public consumption, I would expect other believers to assess it from a biblical point of view, and share their concerns if they had reservations about what effect my message was having on the public receiving it. Indeed, I would take it that they have an obligation as believers to admonish when necessary, even as we are instructed in Scripture.

I did begin my article by stating that the best of intentions may well have gone into this. I still say that. But good intentions by themselves are not our measuring stick. Being true to Scripture and the message of the Gospel is what we should be seeking for. Should we not follow the biblical command to test all things, and make sure that what we are teaching in fact lines up with sound doctrine?

Again, if none of the things said about you and the book by the press are true, I apologise in advance, and ask for your forgiveness. But if they are true, or are even mostly true, then my concerns remain, and I question how helpful your book will be in an age where truth is already under attack, and the Bible is seen as just another set of stories, no better or no worse, no more true or no more false, than the suras of the Koran, the plays of Shakespeare, or the fables of Aesop.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

Yes there are many cultures that need to know God’s message, BUT there are much more productive ways to contextualize these historic stories. It seems his motives are inwardly focused and only edifying his “creativeness” not giving God the praise and glory he deserves.

Olive Oliverio, Vicco

Jessica Kerr

Harrison might want to reconsider if he is a follower of God and what the Bible teaches. Because right now it seems his motive might just be money making. But hey, I don’t know what you’re going to take away from this blog, because you might not know my original intent, and you might just read what I’m writing in your own perspective. Oh well.

Matthew Law