I know present day Warb is officially not going to read this but here goes (for the future, for the unofficial).

While I appreciate the gesture of defending people like myself from prejudice much of that prejudice is coming from parts of the Bible that a large number of Jews, Christians and Muslims either don't take literally or believe no longer applies or never applied to everyone. It's like yeast. Those violent ideas are not always active but it breaks out and spreads often when you least expect it.

So what's to do? I appreciate your concern over family heirlooms and wouldn't want you to chuck them out or chop them up.

You are a Christian. Not a devotee of Ea or Vishnu so while the deluge has some connective tissue to the canonical mythos of Christ it doesn't really have much to do with the teaching of Jesus. Similarly some of the Old Testament sanctions don't chime with what the Savior of the Gospels has to say.

You don't have to physically rip out the pages of the Bible, you can edit them down in your mind.

Peel away the dead wood and leave only what you personally believe and if you don't believe that God wanted people to be stoned to death (Which I've never thought you have) leave that bit out of your personal canon.

You can say it is there in the Bible but I don't believe my God would do that.

Just as if you read someone accusing a beloved relative of doing something horrific you would say I read that but I don't believe it of him or her.

If God has changed and was cruel and sadistic but is now a God of peace and tolerance say that too but if you believe God is still so disgusted by my actions that he wants me violently killed (something you repeatedly say you do not believe and I believe you) don't mention him in defense of what He finds abominable.

It's too paradoxical it's like quoting war criminal to defend civil liberties.