Dove-award winning musical artist Michael Gungor created quite a stir in the evangelical community recently when he declared he does not agree with a literal interpretation of the Bible. The Christian Post reported that Gungor, although he has never intentionally hidden his theology, wrote in a very blunt blog post this week that “no reasonable person takes the Bible literally” and apologized to fundamentalists if they felt “confused” or “tricked” by him.
It was when a Baptist church cancelled their concert with Gungor over the controversy that he felt compelled to clarify his position: “Do I believe God exists? Yes. Do I believe Jesus is the Son of God? Yes,” wrote Gungor. “Do I believe that Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness? Yes. Do I believe that God literally drowned every living creature 5,000 years ago in a global flood except the ones who were living in a big boat? No, I don’t. Why don’t I? Because of science and rational thought.”
“[I]t’s kind of weird to me that so many people seem to be talking about this, because from what I know of Christians, A LOT of us don’t take these things literally,” Gungor continued. “I would be very surprised to find a single respected and educated theologian or biblical scholar that believes that one MUST read Noah’s flood completely literally down to the last detail to be ‘orthodox.’ That’s crazy!”
Ken Ham of AnswersinGenesis.org called Gungor’s post a “mocking rant” and an “emotional, angry and arrogant outburst,” calling on him to apologize for misrepresenting those who believe in the complete inerrancy of the Bible.
“Neither [of the Gungors] is a Bible scholar nor scientist. And yet, they are writing as though they know more than people who have spent their lives studying the inerrancy of Scripture and who—in many cases—have come to different conclusions,” wrote Ham on his site. “The church as a whole needs to demand that [Gungor] apologize for his tone (as well as for his clearly anti-biblical teachings). At the very least, he should write respectfully about these issues.”
“[This] point is my great concern—that the Gungors are influencing young people regarding the authority and trustworthiness of the Bible,” Ham added.
Gungor has been celebrated with a Dove award and a Grammy nomination for their music, which includes worship anthems “Beautiful Things” and “Dry Bones.”
