With a lineup including President Donald J. Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, nearly 500 leaders began yesterday the public reading of the Bible from cover to cover in our nation’s capital.
The event, “America Reads the Bible,” is organized by “Christians Engaged,” an organization committed to inspiring Christians to engage the culture and the voting process in a Biblically informed way.
The “America Reads the Bible” event (co-sponsored by many ministries, including Priests for Life), is taking place at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC and will last for this whole week. Each leader reads one or more chapters of the Bible. The event is livestreamed (see the website for details), and many Churches, schools, and ministries are broadcasting the livestream continuously this week at their respective locations.
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At the kickoff opening celebration Saturday night, the vision was cast that this is an historic and defining moment for America, as we celebrate 250 years of freedom. I believe it is one of many signs that we are in the midst of another Great Awakening, and one of the beneficiaries of all this is the prolife movement.
Historian David Barton, on the opening night, pointed out that no source was more frequently used and quoted by our nation’s founders as they crafted our founding documents than the Holy Scriptures. While the average lifespan of an active national Constitution is about 17 years, ours has lasted two and a half centuries. That is no accident.
And Speaker Mike Johnson in his remarks at the event reminded us that we are the only nation founded on a creed, and that creed, he pointed out, says that we are created equal, not “born,” in an obvious reference to the value of life from conception.
President Donald J. Trump has recorded a reading of Scripture that will be part of the event on Tuesday night at 6pm ET. His passage, significantly, is one of the most quoted passages in the prolife movement, namely 2 Chronicles 7:11-22. We see in Scripture the significance of leaders speaking before God in the name of the people, calling his blessing upon them and expressing their commitment to live the covenant.
In the light of that, it is moving to realize that on Tuesday our President will declare over the nation, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
This is key for the prolife movement, whose response to abortion begins with repentance. We always say that we have to “change minds and hearts.” It is the Bible which is “sharper than a two-edged sword, judging the thoughts and motives of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
In this movement, we realize that the Scriptures are “the Word of Life” (1 Jn. 1:1), and that God created human life (and all things) by speaking a Word.
So as the Scriptures are read over America this week, they are read over the prolife movement, over the unborn, and over each of us who defend them.
The reading of the Scriptures began on Sunday morning as prolife actress Patricia Heaton started off with Genesis. Speaker Mike Johnson read on the first day as well. The lineup this week includes Governors Jim Pillen of Nebraska, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas among others.
A number of leaders well known in the prolife movement have been selected as readers of the Scriptures during the event. I was privileged to read on Sunday night. Other leaders include Ryan Bomberger, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Alveda King, Abby Johnson, and Day Gardner.
We would not have life, nor would we have freedom, were it not for the Word of God. Bible sales have skyrocketed in the last few years, and there’s a reason. People are tired of the denial of truth, of the rebellion against truth, as evidenced in evils like the lie that a baby in the womb is not a baby.
The prolife message is on every page of Scripture. Let us take new strength and conviction from this week’s bible-reading event, which includes our nation’s highest leaders, and let us bring that Word of Life to every home, every courthouse, every legislature, every voting booth, and every heart in America.
LifeNews.com Note: Frank Pavone is the national director for Priests for Life.
