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On June 1, 2020, following the removal of protesters from Lafayette Square across from the White House, President Donald Trump strode with an entourage of White House staff and military personnel to the front of St. John’s Episcopal Church for a photo op. He thrust a Bible into the air and glowered at the camera.
Many Americans wondered what that was all about. It was perplexing and troublesome.
Apparently, it was to show the nation the “scepter” of Trump’s sovereign power and/or to exorcise “demonic forces” manifested in Black Lives Matter demonstrations roiling the nation that very day.
The Bible as talisman.
The president did not hold up the presidential seal. He did not hold up the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or Lincoln’s Second Inaugural address—all precious to Americans. He did not hold up the Quran, precious to Muslims. He did not hold up the Tanakh, precious to Jews. He did not hold up a crucifix, precious to Catholics. He held up a Bible, supremely precious to evangelical Christians as THE WORD OF GOD.
That incident tells you all you need to know about the sway the Bible holds in American society. It has clout.
It shouldn’t. But it does.
This book aims to remove the Bible from its pedestal. It may be a good book, but it is not THE WORD OF GOD. I will tell you why it isn’t and why it’s not as bad as some of you might think. The Bible belongs on the table with other ancient works. We may take it into account, but we are not bound by it.
* * *
The Bible has been on my mind for at least seventy-five years and on my desk for fifty. I was weaned on it. I read it daily. I studied it in college and seminary in its original languages (Hebrew and Greek). I exegeted it. I argued and quarreled over it with fundamentalists, evangelicals, Jews, agnostics, and atheists. I preached more than two thousand sermons from it over forty-five years.
I kept it on a pedestal.
I now know it’s not what I once thought it was. It is not THE WORD OF GOD. It is far from perfect as literature or as an exemplar of morality. It’s human. Still, it remains extraordinary among ancient works. It’s “divine” in some parts. But not all.
It’s a bony fish.
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See Paula’s photo on home page. Scroll down to “visual explorations.” Posted July 7, 2024
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