Going back over some back issues of Third Way magazine, I came across a piece by Stephen Tomkins in which he takes some of the more awkward bits of the Bible and compares what it actually says with what we would like it to say.  Of course, issues of genre, idiom, culture and so on come into play here.  But it’s a good reminder to read and interpret the Biblical text with integrity, facing up to its challenges and not wishing them away.