Certainty Kills: A Primer for Approaching the Bible with a God-honoring & Neighbor-loving Openness

By Bruce Pagano

Certainty Kills is a transformative exploration into the dangers of rigid biblical interpretation, advocating for a God-honoring and neighbor-loving openness. This primer is not merely a critique but a pathway to a more compassionate, diverse, and authentic expression of Christian faith, urging believers to embrace the complexity of scripture wi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ink Publishing House LLC
• Release date: Apr 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869274953

Bruce Pagano

Bruce Pagano II is a private practice licensed clinical professional counselor and author. His main area of expertise is trauma therapy, including religious abuse and spiritual harm, as well as relational issues. Bruce is the author of Three Commands: Jesus's Fulfillment of the Law Through Love.

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Certainty Kills

A Primer for Approaching the Bible with a God-honoring & Neighbor-loving Openness

Bruce Pagano II

Ink Publishing House LLC

Copyright © 2024 Ink Publishing House LLC

Copyright © 2024 by Ink Publishing House LLC, All Rights Reserved.

Certainty Kills: A Primer for Approaching the Bible with a God-honoring & Neighbor-loving Openness, by Bruce Pagano II

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 979-8-218-97382-7

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author.

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be submitted to Ink Publishing at [e-mail] or Bruce Pagano II at [e-mail].

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.  Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. www.friendshippress.org

Disclaimer: The material in this book cannot substitute for professional advice; further, the author is not liable if the reader relied on the material and was financially or emotionally damaged in some way, and the recollection of stories shared are recalled to the best of the author’s knowledge.

DEDICATION

To Technical Sergeant Richard Ricky Smith, USAF Thanks for helping me understand the importance of being certain and when it’s most helpful.

Introduction

In 2009, before i met my wife, a significant life event caused me to lean into a newfound appreciation for contemporary Christian music (CCM). As I immersed myself in worship music, I was able to find immense healing. It was a season of life that, necessarily, restricted my musical library to a single genre. Then, in 2010, my musical world exploded when I met Sarah.

Sarah had a far more extensive music palette than I knew could exist in one person. As our friendship grew, she introduced me to many genres, most of which exist under the indie umbrella. At the same time that our friendship was growing, I had a friend who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. I was in the military then, and they allowed me to spend a lot of time with him and his wife in the hospital. We lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and they admitted him to the Aurora, Colorado, hospital. I spent a few times each week driving the three-hour roundtrip to spend time with them. During those drives, I consumed so many new bands and songs. It was both a comforting and necessary distraction.

One of the bands that Sarah introduced me to was Death Cab for Cutie. If you've never heard of them, put this book down and Spotify them. Death Cab's whole discography is fantastic, but one song remains a psalm of lament and remembrance for that time of my life. The song is, What Sarah Said. As if sharing a name with my now wife wasn't enough, the song's lyrics perfectly reflect the profoundness and difficulty of that experience.

Initially, my friend handled the treatment well. At one point, it seemed like the doctors had eliminated the cancer, and he just had to wait for a bone marrow transplant. While most days it was clear that the treatment made him physically weak, he was often in good spirits, and it showed in his typical joking and laughing. Then, almost out of nowhere, he started getting worse. Initially, the doctors didn't know what