that a document has endured in a faith community does speak to its effectiveness in being a part of the dialouge of humankind and the divine. Personally, the particular authority of a verse comes from how it interacts with teh rest of scripture(thematically agreeing or disagreeing), the nature of it's creation (what influences was the author writing about/is is applicable outside those circumstances, how it interacts with the interpretive traditions (such as mishnahs, midrash, theology, etc...), how those in community around me react to it (i seek out the advice of people who have wisdom in reading the texts such as ministers), and i also look at how the verse make me feel personally-how the Spirit moves when i encounter that text.
I think that's a pretty reasonable method of looking at scripture, though i would hardly claim it as the only or authoriative model.
that, and that post from Jynx was a hell of a troll. As a Christian, I for one think i'm a pretty damn opinionated sheep.
