Well I'm now a member of a church. After hanging out with the same church for quite a while I was asked if I'd like to make it official so I did.
The only thing that I didn't feel entirely comfortable with in the membership form was that the church said it was committed to "Stand firm on the Bible as our primary source of God in Christ and by which all other sources such as reason, tradition and intuition shall be judged"
I straight away thought of Mark 16:9-20
(9) Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. (10) She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. (11) But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. (12) After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. (13) And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. (14) Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. (15) And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. (16) The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. (17) And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; (18) they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." (19) So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. (20) And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.
Intuition tells me that picking up snakes and drinking poison doesn't feel right I'm going to die if I pick up snakes. Reason tells me that scholars do not accept this last section of Mark as written by the original author and that it's a much later addition. Tradition tells me that apart from a handful of people in the Southern states of America, no one has ever given any credence to this part of Mark.
For me the problem with the Bible vs reason, tradition and intuition is that I think this is somewhat of a false dichotomy. The Bible maybe my primary source but it is reason, tradition and intuition that are the tools I use to read and interpret it.
