Can The Gospels Be Trusted?

I'm no fundamentalist, but as a Christian, I do believe the Gospel can indeed be trusted. The recounting of the life of Jesus Christ provides a powerful example for how we should seek to live our own lives. His teachings provide the basis for a moral way of life that is revolutionary challenging the wealthy and the powerful, while healing the sick and empowering the poor.

Does that mean we should use history? I think we should. I can remember reading fundamentalist Josh McDowell. He insists that the Bible tells us that the earth is 6-20 thousand years old. He says if you can't believe the Old testamen word for word, how can you believe the Gospels and the divinity of Jesus. The problem with such circular reasoning is that the science is abudantly clear that the earth is much, much older than 20,000 years. McDowell and other fundamentalists (a la 16th century Catholic Church taking on Galileo) look facts in the face and form a whole system of denial. Progressive Christians take history and science seriously rather than holding to rigid ideology. We know that God gave humans minds to reason and wants us to further explore his creation. Such openess to new discoveries and ideas makes our understanding of God more complete rather than detracting in any way from the message of love, forgiveness and compassion so evident in the Gospels.