Hi, thx for your answers.
Am I correct that your views about exegesis (that it is not allowed by opinion) comes from your inclination towards Catholic Christianity? In my first post, silly me, I had kind of assumed you were protestant, since you mentioned you're "smack in the middle of the bible belt". The looseness in interpretating verses I mentioned, is something that I've found mostly with protestants. Then again, I've barely debated/talked with Catholics on religion (which is Ironic since I live in a country which has a majority of Catholics. But I guess most Catholics here in Belgium either don't have a strong enough conviction to talk about religion, or prefer to hide in their cocoons.