Bible

I'd like to share a wonderfully descriptive quote about the Bible. I didn't read it in context (I hope to have the time to do that, some day) but instead read it on a blog that's authored by one of my high school Bible teachers. He's still teaching Bible and English Literature (oops or maybe just Bible, now) and has compiled stories from his experiences in the classroom. I've enjoyed reading his blog and also enjoy the challenge of trying to sort out which pseudonym belongs to which of my classmates.

Here's the quote, taken from Frank Schaeffer's (yes, son of Francis Schaeffer) book Sham Pearls for Real Swine:

“The Bible is a dangerous, uncivilized, abrasive, raw, complicated, aggressive, scandalous, and offensive book. The Bible is the literature of God, and literature, as every book burner knows, is dangerous. The Bible is the drama of God; it is God’s Hamlet, Canterbury Tales, and Wuthering Heights. The Bible is, among other things, about God, men, women, sex, lies, truth, sin, goodness, fornication, adultery, murder, childbearing, virgins, whores, blasphemy, prayer, wine, food, history, nature, poetry, rape, love, salvation, damnation, temptation, and angels. Today the Bible is widely studied but rarely read. If the Bible were a film, it would be R-rated in some parts, X-rated in others. The Bible is not middle class. The Bible is not ‘nice.’”

 Yes. Totally.

And because I also love Mr. Anderson's commentary on the quote... here's a link to his post. If you're interested in this kind of thing, do yourself a favor and go read it!

Teaching Bible...and Not Making It into a Sterile Snoozefest

Makes me wish I had him for Bible class all three of the years I was at that school instead of just one, because I've certainly had my share of sterile snoozefests - at school AND in church.