This story had some ups and downs for me. A little too precious to be a favourite, but it was certainly notable. And although its theological complexity is toned down for a television audience (no offense intended to anyone, that's just reality of the format; we can all read Spinoza, but we can't expect more than Christianity for Dummies in a short story).
On the plus side, if you took robot and replaced it with any number of historically disadvantaged group, you would find the narrative would fit. From the preacher finding out that "hey, this [insert group name] can have a conversation with me" to "[insert group name] takes jobs away from people" and the dismemberment. Add to that the Robot name versus the name humans use.
On the down side, the robot scratching Luke 23:34 was a little over the top. But then again, maybe only because the passage is so familiar and goes straight to the big scene. On the other hand, as was said above, the robot acted a lot like a precocious child, rather than a scholar - and went straight for the big passages, rather than wading through Matthew or egads the Old Testament something.
Maybe I'm reading too much into the author's intention, but I rather think that it works for the robot not to raise specific questions about all of the internal inconsistencies of the Bible. (Plus, been there, done that; boring). We are to accept that this was, after all, a faithful robot. I do not think it was an oversight, but an intentional choice to indicate to the reader that this robot was different.
I did not find the preacher's reaction to refuse to let the robot sit in the congregation odd - only jarring. It revealed to the reader, and it seems also to the preacher, that there was a deep-rooted prejudice that he thought was obvious and beyond question. It was clear to me that he was angriest at himself, and the guilt flowed from that. I did not think that the preacher was surprised to find the robot engendered a crisis in his faith - as stated earlier religious leaders usually go through some extended training/introspection. But that doesn't make them immune to being shaken, or having doubts. Given the statement that before the robot came along, his sermons were difficult to write, it seems it was brewing for some time.
For me, being raised in a non-congregationalist tradition, the preacher having a debate with the congregation without any explicit signal that this was such a religion was a little disorientating. Was this unusual to have a debate? Plus I found it odd that the preacher marched down during the service, rather than finish up. Perhaps I would have had the robot pass during the service and be found-out by the preacher later.
Was it not very surprising to have the robot defy the preacher on so many occasions? Another signal?
How interesting that the hypothesis that the robot was damaged by a virus causing it to believe what it was told raised above. What does that make the congregation?
We certainly don't like uppity robots these days on EP:
http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=2498.0