You can lead a person to a Bible, but you can’t make him read it, much less act on what it says. Last year, the American Bible Society shipped out three more tons of Bibles than they shipped out last year, yet as ABS president R. Lamar Vest bemoaned to Gordon Robertson on the 700 Club, “Bible literacy continues to go down.”
To prove that statement, ABS commissioned a poll by Harris Interactive asking some simple questions, including finding out if people knew who said this: “You must defend those who are helpless and have no hope. Be fair and give justice to the poor and homeless.”
Fifty four percent of those asked got it wrong. Hint: It’s not President Obama, which is what 16 percent thought. It’s not the Dalai Lama who got 9 percent, or event Martin Luther King Jr. at 8 percent, or Oprah at 4 percent, or even U2 singer Bono who got a 3 percent response.
Instead, it’s a verse from the Bible, Proverbs 31:8-9 to be exact.
The poll is in service to the American Bible Society’s latest vanity Bible — the Poverty and Justice Bible that features a cover depicting breaking chains. On the inside you’ll find more than 2,000 verses that deal with issues of poverty and justice bolded by a bright orange highlight.
“The Poverty and Justice Bible seeks to challenge the notion that the Bible is outdated and proves that God — not politicians, celebrities or even our greatest activists — was the first to speak out on today’s most pressing issues of poverty and injustice,” said Richard Stearns, president and CEO of World Vision, an international relief organization and collaborator on the Bible project.
I’m not sure that it’s because the Bible is “outdated” that so many people can’t pick out scripture verses dealing with issues of poverty and justice. The poll really proves that the religious right has so thoroughly hijacked the real message of the Bible that when people quote passages about helping the poor, the Bible is the last thing we think would support such a thing.
With right-wing politicians and religious outfits using Jesus as everything from a wealth building partner, to a business CEO to a partner in denying equality in all areas of life to other human beings, is it really any surprise that most people don’t know that the in the Bible God has a definite preference for the poor and outcast? Jesus’ message of helping the least of these has been so co-opted by the religious right and conservative politicians that the American Jesus is all about increasing our personal wealth and sweeping the poor and outcast under the carpet, denying them healthcare, financial assistance and more.
There are some redeeming qualities about the Poverty and Justice Bible. In some ways, it can be a good teaching tool. In an illuminating interview with Vest on the 700 Club, even Pat Robertson’s son Gordon was moved to declare that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was all about denying help to the poor — not one mention of homosexuality. That is some measure of progress, and perhaps the first time 700 Club viewers had heard of such a thing.
Certainly, if this Bible moves people to get involved in programs, charities, and policy initiatives that are working to alleviate the suffering of poverty and injustice, then I am all for it. What I fear, however, is that this is another way for people to assuage their guilt over the poor with yet another purchase. They can proudly display their Poverty and Justice Bible on the coffee table, give lip service to the issue, but never really be moved to get engaged.
It’s true that the bad economy is affecting us all in some way or another. Giving to charitable organizations has continued todecline for the third year. Those charities hit the hardest? Those trying to help the hungry and homeless, according to Giving USA. As the giving decreases, the pain increases as nearly 47.4 million people live in poverty and some 3.5 million Americans are homeless in a given year.
My other concerns come from Vest himself, who, in the course of his 700 Club interview made it clear that part of his goal is not just to “give a handout” to the needy, but to proselytize them as well:
“That’s why we feel like any kind of charitable organization that is Christian has to be so attached to the Bible. The American Bible Society is all about scripture, but we are there alongside the relief agents to say if people read and understand God’s word there will be transformation in their lives,” he told Robertson.
It’s no shock, I suppose, that Christians want to recruit others to be Christians, but other religions also demand that their adherents take care of the poor and needy. One need not be a Christian to heed the Bible’s call, the call of another religion, or the ethics of humanism to help lift people from poverty and injustice.
It’s also a bit hypocritical for Robertson to be pontificating on the virtues of helping the poor when his father’s own Operation Blessing has a spotty history of actually aiding the poor and oppressed.
Far from the media’s gaze, Robertson has used the tax-exempt, nonprofit Operation Blessing as a front for his shadowy financial schemes, while exerting his influence within the GOP to cover his tracks. In 1994 he made an emotional plea on The 700 Club for cash donations to Operation Blessing to support airlifts of refugees from the Rwandan civil war to Zaire (now Congo). Reporter Bill Sizemore of The Virginian Pilot later discovered that Operation Blessing’s planes were transporting diamond-mining equipment for the African Development Corporation, a Robertson-owned venture initiated with the cooperation of Zaire’s then-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
I can’t help but believe that Robertson’s empire will stop at nothing to defend its wealth at the expense of the least of these. But, perhaps others in the viewing audience might be moved by this new Bible to get the job done.
I do believe, however, that Vest and his organization are sincere and that they want a people to again read the Bible instead of having it collect dust on the shelf. I suppose I would be a bit more impressed, however, if proceeds of the sales of the Poverty and Justice Bible, or even a portion of the proceeds, were going to help the poor and oppressed. ABS does, indeed, have a grant program they say helps places like Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation army, but nothing seems to be directly going to help the needy from this new Bible. I hope this Bible will spur some to action to help the needy, but for now, it seems that the one who stands to profit the most is the publisher.
