If you don’t like what the Bible has to say about a particular sin you’ve been committing, then sue the guys who publish Bibles. At least that’s the thinking of Bradley LaShawn Fowler, a gay man from Canton, Mich. Fowler seeks $60 million from Zondervan and $10 million from Thomas Nelson Publishing for 20 years of “emotional duress and mental instability” he claims to have suffered because of Bible verses that call homosexuality as a sin.

“The Court has some very genuine concerns about the nature and efficacy of these claims,” wrote a judge from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

HT: Samuel at Gilgal

I can gauge my spiritual life by the degree to which I poeticize the Bible. An instance of that came to light today. I learned that someone I had deeply offended had refrained from telling me my offense until he could deal with it sufficiently in his own heart to avoid sending me a hurtful letter.

I was immediately reminded of Paul’s identical motive in his words to the Corinthians:

I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia….Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say ‘Yes, yes’ and ‘No, no’ at the same time….But I call God to witness against me — it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth….For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. (2 Corinthians 1:16,17,23; 2:1)

Like Paul, my friend chose to bless me when his baser self wanted to hurt me back. In order to pull off that soul transaction, he had to suck up the pain himself, take on my debt himself rather than handing me the bill.

All of which made me take a second look at something Paul said later in the same letter:

[We are] always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also my be manifested in our mortal flesh. (4:10,11)

Nothing poetical or romantic about that.

According to a Harris Interactive poll, the Bible is America’s all-time favorite book, and is No. 1 across all demographic groups. No. 2 is Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind, followed by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, and Stephen King’s The Stand. Dan Brown has two books in the overall top 10, The Da Vinci Code (No. 6) and Angels and Demons (No. 8). Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is No. 7, followed by Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged at No. 9 and J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye rounding out the top 10.

For women, the second most popular book behind the Bible is Gone With the Wind, while for men it’s the Lord of the Rings. As for political partisans, polls may show we’re divided into red states and blue states and disagree on issues and candidates, but according to this survey, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents all agree on their top two favorite books: the Bible and Gone With the Wind.

Did your favorite books of all-time make the top 10?

Covers made from synthetic materials are out and specialty papers, fabrics, and other eco-friendly materials are in at Thomas Nelson Inc., as the Bible publisher attempts to go green. “In moving away from oil-based covers we’re not only honoring our customers’ needs, but we’re also honoring our Godly calling to be good stewards of the things He has given to us,” said Wayne Hastings of Thomas Nelson’s Bible group. And for you traditionalists out there, don’t worry; the company will continue to produce leather, bonded leather, and hardcover Bibles.

HT: Tim Challies

Because of circumstances beyond my control, I am temporarily cut off from the letters of a friend, someone I am accustomed to hearing from several times a week. The effect has surprised me — a kind of withering of my soul, a creeping doubt about his affections. It’s silly and groundless because I have copious reasons for assurance. But there is something about having no word from him daily that is vaguely unsettling.

This makes me appreciate the kindness and wisdom of God in leaving us his Word. Relationship is relationship. It is true with God as with my flesh and blood friend that when I am bereft, for whatever reason, of hearing from Him for a stretch of days, the cobwebs of doubt start to gather. It is insidious, and happens even as I am at first vainly imagining that the deprivation makes little difference to me.

It’s only when I go back to meeting Him in Scripture every morning that I see what I have missed by my neglect. I see how the imagination had started to fashion pale fictions of the mind in place of the real God. I see how needy is my soul for his iconoclastic presence, and to hear him say the words “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”

Controversy is brewing in Texas where lawyers for a man on death row say jurors improperly consulted the Bible when deciding how to sentence the man. Khristian Oliver’s lawyers say jurors used Numbers 35:16–which says murderers should receive the death penalty–as the basis for giving Oliver the death sentence.

But special prosecutor Sue Korioth said there was never any indication jurors voted based on Scripture: “Several of them carried Bibles in and out like my daughter carries her Seventeen magazine.” When oral arguments are held later this year, lawyers will be asked whether the jurors’ consultation of the Bible amounted to “an external influence that raises a presumption of prejudice.”

Bearing in mind that we all–no matter who we are or what we believe–have biases/worldviews through which we interact with the world around us, what role should/can the Bible play in the courtroom?

The Christmas season — yes, I said it: “Christmas” — is a hot time for Bible sales, particularly kids’ Bibles. But what kind of kids’ Bibles? Some parents prefer kids’ Bibles that use friendly characters and accessible metaphor to communicate the truths of Scripture. Others prefer fewer talking cucumbers and more theological depth.

USA Today explores the thinking of parents, authors, and booksellers on what kind of Bibles are best for kids. What kind would/did you choose for yours?

HT:  Michelle

UPDATE: Just checked the comments on this thread. RR needs your help and advice on this very topic.

In a “surprisingly uncontroversial decision,” Alabama became the first state in the union to approve a Bible-based textbook for use in its public schools. During a hearing Oct. 11, the state Board of Education voted 8-0 to include The Bible and Its Influence on the state’s list of accepted textbooks.

The textbook is a product of the Bible Literacy Project, founded and run by Chuck Stetson, a conservative Christian New York-based equity fund executive. Assessing scripture and its subsequent influence on literature, art, philosophy and political culture, it was specifically designed to avoid the Constitution’s church-state barriers. Although the text, which has been on the market for two years, is now taught in 163 schools in 35 states, no state had previously endorsed it.

Do you think Alabama’s example will pave the way for other states?

Starting this year, Alabama public-schooled students will study the Bible with the State Board of Educations’ unanimous approval. Alabama is the first state to approve the Bible Literacy Project’s textbook, The Bible and its Influence, as part of its state curriculum.

Sheila Weber, Vice President of Communications for BLP, told WoW the BLP created the textbook “to give school boards a greater level of confidence, so they could see exactly how the subject matter was being presented.” The Bible and its Influence takes a non-devotional, academic approach to studying the Bible. It walks students through the Old and New Testaments, with side explorations of topics like “Milton and the Bible,” “Exodus and Emancipation,” and “Freedom and Faith in America.”

Any Bible textbook must walk a shaky wall between church and state. Forty scholars — Catholic, Jewish, Evangelical, mainline Protestant, and Orthodox – reviewed the textbook before publication. The book has won endorsements from evangelicals like Chuck Colson, Vonnie Bright from Campus Crusade for Christ and Jamie Crouse from Concerned Women for America. TIME Magazine has also praised it, and Charles Haynes, senior scholar with the First Amendment Center, reviewed and endorsed it.

According to San Diego Union Tribune, Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church called the textbook one-sided: “To teach religion objectively, you really have to teach the good, the bad and the ugly and this book only teaches the good.” The book’s introduction tells students, “You will not be pressed into accepting religion. You will study about religion as presented in the Bible, but you will not be engaged in the practice of religion.” Earlier critics pointed to factual errors in the textbook, but a second printing has addressed concerns.

Only 8 percent of public schools offer an elective course on the Bible. Now that 160 schools have implemented The Bible and its Influence and 2,000 educators are reviewing it, that statistic may change.

A recent study that was commissioned ahead of the Oct. 19 release of the animated movie “The Ten Commandments” found that people are more familiar with the ingredients in a Big Mac than they are with the commandments.

OK, so in our society that’s no big surprise. But I’m curious among our Bible-believing readers, if you were randomly surveyed and asked to name the 10 Commandments, would you receive an A+? (Be honest now.)