I worked closely with Paul Hanson of Harvard Divinity School on his most recent book, A Political History of the Bible in America. In that book and in The People Called he has as really helpful hermeneutic that allows people to in effect separate the wheat from the chaff in the Biblical tradition.

I am completely horrified by how so many of my white male countrymen are "misinterpreting" scripture. My deeper concern though is that if those folks here the Bible being attacked they immediately put up their defenses and see you as the enemy. If they hear people pointing to the deeper lessons of Scripture, such as the Sermon on the Mount, they can slowly change to a more loving and accepting attitude. If Jesus specifically rejected portions of the Hebrew Bible then it certainly suggests that it is a strategy for dealing with problematic texts. Augustine himself said that his understanding of Creation would change if the scientific consensus changed.

Thanks for responding to my comments.