Yes, there are many ways to interpret the Bible. No disagreement with you there.
Just as there are many ways to interpret The Great Gatsby. The fact is, no matter how many interpretations to The Great Gatsby there are, there is only one view that is correct; that of F. Scott’s.
So how does one discover the “true meaning” of what Fitzgerald was saying? Obviously we use certain rules of interpretation. Rules of interpretation are important for understanding any piece of historical literature. Learning the context, culture, historical setting, and language is what we refer to as “exegesis.” Therefore, it is possible to be solidly convinced of one’s position concerning interpretation of scripture, assuming proper exegetical guidelines have been followed.

As for Christians all disagreeing on everything, this statement is blatantly false. I propose that Christians agree on 95 percent of all theological issues.

-Merit

http://thinkingreed.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/affirming-liberalism-and-conservatism/

1.) Christians enjoy freedom from the absolute authority of any written text, including the Bible

2.) The church should include different interpretations of the Christian faith

3.) People should be free to dissent from any human authority, including the church

4.) The search for truth is best served by critical discussion and inquiry

5.) Faith is a relation of trust in a person more than an affirmation of propositional truths

6.) Religious belief may need to be re-evaluated in light of new knowledge from other areas

7.) The church exists to serve the world and contribute to the flourishing of all creation, both material and spiritual

“Are you Catholic?”

They can either say yes or no. If they say, “Yes”, I ask:

“Are Protestants Christian?”

But if, instead, they say “No”, they are Christian but not Catholic, I’ll ask “Are Catholics Christian?”

It doesn’t matter if they are Catholic or Protestant, I just ask them if they think the other group is really Christian. My goal is to get them to admit that there are a lot of different interpretations of the Bible out there.

They can either answer “Yes” or “No”.

If they say “No” (meaning the other group is not Christian), then I ask where they get the authority to make that judgement - not the Bible, surely, since the other side reads the Bible too. They might, at that point, quote the Bible to prove that the other group is not really Christian - but for me this is just more evidence that different people can read the Bible different ways and come up with different interpretations.

If they say “Yes” (meaning they recognize the other group as being a kind of Christian) then I ask, “If there is only one way to interpret the Bible, then why are there so many different Christian sects?”

Among liberal Christian sects, the standard answer is “Humans are flawed creatures and even though there is only one God and the Bible is his truth, no intellect of mortal flesh is able to fully comprehend the truth of God.”

Whenever I run into a fanatic like Merit, I try to back them into that intellectual corner. Because, either a Christian recognizes other sects as Christians, and therefore recognizes that there are a lot of ways to interpret the Bible, or they insist that their interpretation is the only true interpretation of the Bible, in which case, they are really too fanatic to talk to, but if I felt like playing along I’d ask “How do you know that?” which should stump them as much as “How do you know murder is wrong?” stumped you.

Generally, most sane Christians will admit that there are a lot of ways to interpret the Bible, and therefore, once they’ve admited that, I suggest them to that there are multiple ways to interpret passages about sexuality, or gender roles, or the role of the state, the place of children, the authority of tradition, etc.

There are hundreds of Christian sects in the world. They disagree with each other about everything. This fact, by itself, should raise doubt in a good Christian’s mind about the certainty of their own interpretation of the Bible.