I wouldn't say I have some special criteria. But I do depend heavily on what the majority of people more knowledgable about the Bible than myself think. That generally includes pastors or Biblical scholars of some kind. It's like the TV show "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire." One of their helps is to ask the audience. Most of the time, the majority in the audience is right. It sure beats taking a wild guess if you're not sure of the answer.

Also, I expect those "experts" to be able to explain why they believe as they do. Such as with the examples you brought up, slavery and stoning, the Bible wasn't promoting that behavior, it was merely dealing with situations that were common in those days. And the ways God chose to interact with His people totally changed after Jesus came, so the Old Testament contains a lot of punitive measures that no longer apply. But if the Old Testament says something is wrong, and the New Testament says something is wrong, I can be pretty sure God thinks it's wrong. What troubles me is not when people have a different interpretation of scripture than I. What troubles me is when people just ignore parts of scripture.

Dakota