You might have heard about David Klinghoffer's new book, "How Would God Vote: Why The Bible Commands You To Be  A Conservative."

It's an amusing book, in its way, for its bold  attack on access to contraception, no-fault divorce, and taxes rates above 10%.

As a Jew, I'm particularly amused by his use of the First Crusade as the model for warfare. Klinghoffer, who gets much of his cachet in right-wing circles for being a self-styled orthodox Jew, apparently never noticed that  laments for the Jewish communities destroyed in 1096 to this day are recited on the fast day of Tisha b'Av.

Murder, adultery, dynastic back-stabbing: What's not to like?

But for those of us who consider the Book of Samuel part of Sacred Scripture, what is it doing in the Bible?

I'm in the process of publishing a book that examines Samuel from an "Open Orthodox" Jewish perspective -- a perspective that takes the Bible seriously, while insisting that God is ultimately moral.

More details after the jump.