I was recently reading an article on AOL about a town in Frisco, Texas that was up in arms because the Gideons left Bibles for Junior High and High School students at unmanned tables designated for that very purpose. You can read it for yourself at: http://news.aol.com/article/gideon-school-bibles/490719
It got me thinking. Why are parents so afraid that their Junior High or High School students would be reading Bibles? Even more frightening was the reasoning of one parent who said, "They should be giving those items wherever they worship. School is a place to learn, not a place to worship," Michael Baier, the parent of a high school student, told Fox. So...reading the Bible and what it has to say isn't learning? Why are the parents so afraid of their children reading Bibles? My wife teaches Junior High in Central California. She teaches 7th grade World History. Teaching about the Protestant Reformation is REQUIRED by the state. California realizes that it is impossible to understand history in the middle ages without a knowledge of the role the church played in it, and as a result the scriptures. The Protestant reformation was based on scripture and its interpretation.
It used to be the left wing of our country that was adamantly opposed to banning books anywhere. Now we have parents worried that children might actually be exposed to a...drum roll...book! Ironically, I know a Gideon who hands out Bibles at universities in our town. He tells me how many of these students have NEVER READ A BIBLE. They are eager to get their hands on one. How can they tell if they believe, disbelieve, respect, or disrespect the book WITHOUT READING IT? Since Bibles are as easy to get as a cold in America, why haven't these kids been able to get their hands on one?
What are people so afraid of? Would these same parents have been afraid of a book on the virtues of Darwinism being left on the tables? Books are meant to be read and assessed and then either believed and followed, or discredited and discarded. Furthermore, reading the Bible is not an act of worship as atheists and agnostics do it all the time (for research) in the same way that Christians read Origin of the Species by Darwin, or the Koran, or any other book.
If the Bible is just a book, no one is in any danger in reading it. No one. If the Bible is more than just a book, and if it effects people in a very powerful way, then there actually could be some danger in reading it--if a changed life and world view is considered dangerous. Of course, then you would have to ask yourself, what is in a Bible that would radically change someone? What makes it so different? Why is it far and away the world's best seller of all time? And why, why, why would someone be afraid their teenager might get their hands on one?
