{"id":5484,"date":"2011-03-06T16:42:57","date_gmt":"2011-03-06T16:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=5484"},"modified":"2011-03-06T16:42:57","modified_gmt":"2011-03-06T16:42:57","slug":"reading-the-bible-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/reading-the-bible-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading the Bible (or not)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/CofE1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/CofE1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"CofE1\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5485\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tnr.com\/book\/review\/rise-fall-bible-timothy-beal\">Reviewing<\/a> a new book on the Bible for the <em>New Republic<\/em>, Adam Kirsch notes this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>While there is no denying that the Bible remains central\u2014Beal quotes polls indicating that \u201c65 percent of all Americans believe that the Bible \u2018answers all or most of the basic questions of life,\u2019 \u201d\u2014he notes simultaneously that Americans are surprisingly ignorant of what is actually in it. \u201cMore than 80 percent of born-again or evangelical Christians believe that \u2018God helps those who help themselves\u2019 is a Bible verse,\u201d he writes. Less than half of all adults can name the four Gospels; only one-third can name five of the Ten Commandments. In his own experience as a college teacher, Beal says, students \u201ccome to class on the first day with more ideas about the Bible derived from \u2026 The Da Vinci Code than from actual Biblical texts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Andrew Sullivan <a href=\"http:\/\/andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com\/the_daily_dish\/2011\/03\/should-christians-read-the-bible-like-jews.html\">weighs in<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Count me unsurprised. Christianism is not Christianity; it&#8217;s a rationalization of a certain culture and politics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Well, I\u2019m not surprised either, but I am reassured. Ignorance is never to be celebrated, but in this case it beats the most likely alternative for many of the Bible&#8217;s would-be readers; the dreary and obsessive rote-learning, study and purported follow-to-the letter of sacred text that is a characteristic of, say,  much of Islam and certain strains of Judaism. <\/p>\n<p>The Bible certainly has its moments, but the West has benefited immensely from the way that Christianity has broken free from its ancient founding text into something infinitely more fluid, flexible and syncretic. If evangelical Christians wish to believe that \u2018God helps those who help themselves\u2019 is a Bible verse that is, I think, far from a tragedy.<\/p>\n<p>It sure beats that whole \u2018lilies in the field\u2019 thing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewing a new book on the Bible for the New Republic, Adam Kirsch notes this: While there is no denying that the Bible remains central\u2014Beal quotes polls indicating that \u201c65 percent of all Americans believe that the Bible \u2018answers all &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/reading-the-bible-or-not\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[193],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5484"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5487,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5484\/revisions\/5487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}