Reply #106: No, that's not quite it, either.

[trotsky]

Fred Phelps will look at the bible as an authoritative manual so he can spread his hate for gays, Jews, atheists, etc. The bible (as he sees it) is an infallible set of books written by God himself.

Fundies like him may proclaim the bible to be infallible, and claim to embrace all of it, but they reject wholesale parts of it just as readily as liberal Christians do. Neither side is particularly honest about A) why they do this, and B) that they're even doing it at all. That's what I find most frustrating.

So I don't think a person like JerseygirlCT will say, "I believe in X and Y because the bible says so." She will say that she believes in something because it is part of who she is, drawing her own conclusions based on her own life experiences.

How does she determine that Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross for her sins? Did she conclude this based on her own life experiences?

Consulting the "autonomous self" rather than the bible to determine personal belief is part of post-enlightenment religion.

Oh that's definitely the primary force here - but the fundies like Phelps are doing it too.