Biblical Truths

Bible sales are up 10% compounded annually since 2006. But Bible illiteracy is up as well. Several surveys, one clearly multiple choice, has revealed the following:
       1. Less than half of all adult Americans can name the first book of the Bible (Genesis, in Hebrew, unfortunately, Bereshit,) or the four Gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

2. More than 80 percent of born-again or evangelical Chris­tians believe that "God helps those who help themselves" is a Bible verse.

3. More than half of graduating high school seniors guess that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.

4. One in ten adults believes that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. (My personal favorite.)

Does this mean anything? Maybe people plan to read the Bible they bought. Maybe they bought it for someone else who they thought needed it, or knew would read it. Maybe they just could not turn that Witness away from the door. Or maybe we've changed. The Bible's influence in the United States over the years has been profound, as a teaching method alone. All those 19th Century letters from the common man in the Civil War were shot through with New and Old Testament influence and diction. And the Bible had some lessons to teach that were well remembered, especially as Heavenly censure and advice.

But now it may have all dissipated. Maybe we go nowhere for censure, nowhere for advice. And maybe our standards are lowered to half-mast. And maybe we are not even what we eat, or what we read but what we bought.