Over two million students participated in Focus on the Family’s “Bring Your Bible to School Day” earlier this month, a robust display of evangelical fervor which should encourage anyone concerned about the rising generation.
As organizers, we didn’t suggest what type of Bible to bring – and for good reason. According to latest reports, over 100 million Bibles were sold around the world last year. Between 10 to 14 million were purchased here in the United States. At last check, there are just over 250 different translations. The King James Version (KJV) remains the most popular overall (55%), followed by the New International Version (NIV). Focus on the Family generally cites the English Standard Version (ESV) thanks to its “essentially literal” approach.
In recent days, several outlets have been reporting on yet another version, for children.
It’s called “The Just Love Story Bible,” aimed at children between the ages of four and ten. Yet it’s not a complete bible, as it contains 52 stories written by Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis and Rev. Dr. Shannon Daley-Harris.
In promoting it, the publisher declares, ‘The big message of the Bible is that God loves us and created us to love God and each other, to do justice, and to love kindness.”
It would seem the writers are referencing Micah 6:8. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
The book is hailed as “A groundbreaking, justice-oriented storybook Bible for children and families.”
The publisher also made it clear that the biblical characters are depicted “in various shades of brown.”
Dr. Lewis told Religion News Service, “The biblical characters mostly look Black and Brown and caramel … now White children, I imagine, looking in this Bible and seeing brown people and thinking to themselves, ‘Oh, brown people belong to God, too.’”
Do most caucasian children not already assume that all individuals of various races were also created by God?
Only the motives of the authors appear broader and far more dangerous than merely trumpeting diversity. They also want to sow seeds of doubt in children’s minds that the events depicted in the Bible are literally true, including the Resurrection.
“For me, it matters more that children know that love never dies, so that’s where I landed,” stated Dr. Lewis. “It’s OK to actually tell kids from the get-go: Some of these stories are about true people and things that really happened, and some of them are made-up stories, but they’re in there because they can still teach us true things about God.”
Questioning the accuracy and authority of the Bible is hardly a new exercise, but so blatantly and openly selling such a heretical interpretation of God’s Word to children undermines God’s sacred Word in a particularly dangerous and destructive way.
In this corrupted telling, Jesus is portrayed as being a feminist.
“When Shannon and I say we don’t want children to learn something they have to unlearn, we don’t want them to learn patriarchy from this story Bible,” said Dr. Lewis.
So what do the authors want children to learn?
For claiming to be so open-minded, it’s ironic that the authors aren’t open to children believing what the Scriptures have proclaimed for thousands of years. Instead, they want them to see the Bible as a collection of stories that promote their theologically radical and heretical views. It’s only inspired in their minds to the degree they agree with whatever they’ve deemed acceptable and tolerable.
How this book sells remains an open question, but parents shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that simply because it’s marketed as a “bible” it’s healthy and harmless reading.
This is one “bible” that should be filed under fiction.
Image credit: Beaming Books.
