{"id":64,"date":"2018-04-24T17:57:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T21:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=64"},"modified":"2018-04-24T17:57:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T21:57:00","slug":"gq-bible-sententious-foolish-ill-intentioned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2018\/04\/gq-bible-sententious-foolish-ill-intentioned.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGQ\u201d: Bible is \u201cSententious, Foolish and Ill-Intentioned\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-65\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2018\/04\/holy-670718_640.jpg\" alt=\"holy-670718_640\" width=\"640\" height=\"479\" \/>Everyone remembers reading a book in high school English that was supposedly a classic but just felt like a waste of time. \u201cGQ\u201d recently released an article titled \u201c21 Books You Don\u2019t Have to Read\u201d that aimed to dethrone some so-called classics that really have seen better days. Unfortunately, the books \u201cGQ\u201d describes as \u201cracist\u2026sexist\u201d and \u201creally, really boring\u201d are not exactly what anyone with sense would expect to find on a list of books that should be \u201c[struck]\u2026from the canon\u201d of \u201cGreat Books.\u201d Case in point? Number 12 on the list is nothing other than the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>According to \u201cGQ,\u201d the Bible is \u201crated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it.\u201d The article goes on to describe the holy book of more than 2.2 billion people as \u201crepetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and\u2026ill-intentioned.\u201d What does \u201cGQ\u201d recommend people read instead? \u201cThe Notebook\u201d by Agota Kristof, \u201ca marvelous tale of two brothers who have to get along when things get rough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Replacing the Bible with a fiction book is madness. Beyond the incredible spiritual importance the Bible holds for nearly a third of all the people on Earth, the Bible is the foundation on which much of Western society was built. The United States Code references God no less than 68 times, and all 50 states reference God in their State Constitutions. Much of modern philosophy is based on this holy text, and the Bible has influenced world events since its official canonization in A.D. 367. Much of the art of the Renaissance depicted Biblical scenes, and ancient Catholic cathedrals are still seen as stunning works of architecture. A large reason that people emigrated to the New World was to avoid persecution for their interpretation of the Bible, and wars over differences in Biblical interpretations set a decent chunk of Europe on fire during the Protestant Reformation and Counter Reformation. In a more modern era, the Bible is still the moral backbone of hundreds of millions of people. The text has even infused multiple languages. To see proof of that, simply listen to what most people say after someone sneezes.<\/p>\n<p>The idea that the Bible can be dismissed out of hand is as ridiculous as it is dangerous. Ignoring the text that is the bedrock of multiple nations\u2019 cultures and informs the lives of almost a third of humanity is almost staggering in its cheerful ignorance. Regardless of whether or not a person is a practicing Christian, the Bible\u2019s influence on history still cannot be overstated. It is without question the single most influential book of all time. Arguably the most important modern invention, the printing press, was created in part to allow for more people to own a Bible. The Bible also still influences modern debates about abortion, gay marriage and other hot button topics.<\/p>\n<p>While the article understandably has Christians up in arms, the suggested readings in place of the classic books \u201cGQ\u201d dislikes are enough to have most people dismiss the entire article. \u201cThe Catcher in the Rye\u201d was replaced with the lesbian teacher-student love story \u201cOlivia.\u201d McCullough\u2019s tale of one of the founding fathers in \u201cJohn Adams\u201d was replaced with \u201cDestiny of the Republic,\u201d the story about the death of a president most people forget existed, President Garfield. \u201cAngels,\u201d a \u201cnightmare that begins on a Greyhound bus\u201d replaces \u201cDracula\u201d whose titular character spawned an entire genre and the most portrayed literary character of all time. \u201cLord of the Rings,\u201d which spawned several languages people actually speak and forever altered the genre of high fantasy, was cut from the list of classics as were \u201cGulliver\u2019s Travels,\u201d \u201cSlaughterhouse-Five,\u201d \u201cCatch-22,\u201d \u201cThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,\u201d \u201cA Farewell to Arms\u201d and \u201cThe Old Man and the Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How and why \u201cGQ\u201d decided some of the most influential novels of all time have stopped mattering to modern readers is unclear. The novels reflect the time they were written in, but that does not detract from their importance. Even if \u201cGQ\u201d wants to erase books that kick started some of the most popular genres in existence, pretending away the book that forever altered the course of human history is a frightening thought. Regardless of whether or not someone sees the Bible as God\u2019s word, no one can deny the book\u2019s influence on everything from art to philosophy to military tactics. Somehow, however, that is not enough for it to remain on the list of \u201cGreat Books.\u201d One has to wonder, given the list of books that did not make the cut for a must read, what are \u201cGQ\u201ds standards for a \u201cGreat Book?\u201d Clearly they have a different idea than most of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone remembers reading a book in high school English that was supposedly a classic but just felt like a waste of time. \u201cGQ\u201d recently released an article titled \u201c21 Books You Don\u2019t Have to Read\u201d that aimed to dethrone some so-called classics that really have seen better days. Unfortunately, the books \u201cGQ\u201d describes as \u201cracist\u2026sexist\u201d&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-news","tag-anti-christian"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cGQ\u201d: Bible is \u201cSententious, Foolish and Ill-Intentioned\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recent \u201cGQ\u201d article listed 21 classic books that they felt no longer mattered to modern readers. Among these books was none other than the Bible.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cGQ\u201d: Bible is \u201cSententious, Foolish and Ill-Intentioned\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent \u201cGQ\u201d article listed 21 classic books that they felt no longer mattered to modern readers. Among these books was none other than the Bible.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2018\/04\/gq-bible-sententious-foolish-ill-intentioned.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-24T21:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/files\/2018\/04\/holy-670718_640.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephanie Hertzenberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u201cGQ\u201d: Bible is \u201cSententious, Foolish and Ill-Intentioned\u201d","description":"A recent \u201cGQ\u201d article listed 21 classic books that they felt no longer mattered to modern readers. Among these books was none other than the Bible.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u201cGQ\u201d: Bible is \u201cSententious, Foolish and Ill-Intentioned\u201d","og_description":"A recent \u201cGQ\u201d article listed 21 classic books that they felt no longer mattered to modern readers. 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