I was reading something on @WilGafney's blog and it pretty much summed up how I currently feel about the Bible.

She said Episcopalian Christians believe that "The Word of God is in the Bible but not everything in the Bible is the Word of God".

Often when I tell people I pick and choose what I adhere to in the Bible, they look at me in surprise.

The truth is everyone is actually picking cause honestly, people read and encounter God differently therely leading to several interpretations and denominations.

The method I use to select Scripture apart from reading on context and history on verses, is to ask myself if a verse is in line with the covenant of freedom ALL Christians are to experience in Christ's death.

This in turn makes me ignore sexist and homophobic verses because they not just hold in bondage women and LGBT people who have been set free by Christ,

they are not reflective of the character of Jesus who treated women with respect and never said anything about gay people.

I'm saying this because I realize that no matter how much we try to uncover the context of misogynistic verses,
the fact remains that there are sexist verses in the Bible that can't be explained away no matter how much we try.

But here's the good news.
Our faith as Christians is rooted in Christ.
As Christians we follow Christ and strive to be like Him daily.

This means that we have to emulate the values He stood for while on earth which to me were love and justice for the marginalized.

This may sound blasphemous,
but if you are truly Christian,

you shouldn't be homophobic,
you shouldn't be against women preaching in church,
you shouldn't support submission.

This is for the simple fact that these doctrines are antithetical to the character of Christ.