As friendships go, this one was a while in the making. Unlike many who love the Scriptures, I needed help to cherish the Bible.
In fact, I needed a revolution in my thinking, because in the heady post-1960s culture in which I was educated, a high school teacher told our class that the Bible was guilty for more deaths than Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin combined. This wasn’t a description designed to make me rush and buy a copy!
It’s certainly true that the Bible’s hallowed pages have been interpreted by some to justify heinous acts ranging from slavery to war to apartheid. But promoting division and destruction is not its purpose. Quite the contrary. Its reason for being is to open our hearts and minds to the healing and saving power of God as “my best, my ever Friend” (John Ryland, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 224). When understood in this way, the Scriptures bring to light the most potent force available for realizing individual and collective good—the Love that is God. Woven throughout the Bible are stories of healing and reformation that confirm the potency that comes from properly understanding and expressing this divine Love.
