Recently I watched the movie "Yentl." I had not seen it in decades. As the movie begins, a note pops onto the screen that it is a time when "the world of study belongs only to men." Immediately I felt a heart twinge.
A bookseller, with his cart of books, booms hi sales pitch, "Story books for women; sacred books for men!" "Novels for women; sacred books for men!" "Picture books for women; sacred books for men!" I feel another twinge.
Cut-in scenes show younger women at the market. I hear older women instructing how to tell herrings from carp and how to check a fish's scales, color, and even smell to determine freshness. I feel another twinge, and a big "Yuk!" is forming in my brain.
Yentl is not interested in the tales (or tails) of fish; she is only focused on getting her hands on a sacred book for studying.
This very brief opening touched me. What if I had lived in a time when I was expected to smell fish or look at picture books instead of studying God's word? Now my heart is in a full spasm at the thought.
Yet, I have to wonder. Am I as determined as Yentl was to meditate, ponder, and study the treasures of God's word? Am I hungry, even famished, to feed on God's word? To what length would I actually go to study?
Theologicalstudies.org says that George Gallup points out that so many Bibles have been printed in the United States "that even rough estimates of the total number published to date do not exist."1 I am embarrassed to admit how many are on my shelves and in my house that have not been opened in a very long time.
According to T.S., 92% of American households have at least one copy of the Bible, and of those households, they average three copies. This includes hundreds of thousands of professing atheists, as well as practicing Christians.2
Yet, a Gallup poll in October 2000 reported that only 59% of Americans read their Bibles occasionally. This is down from 73% in the 1980s. According to the Barna Research Group, those who read the Bible regularly only spend about 52 minutes a week in the Scriptures.
Gallup concluded after further polling that even though the Bible was present, read, and sometimes studied, "ignorance about its contents is widespread" based upon the following evidence:
- Only half of adult interviewed nationwide could name any of the four
Gospels of the New Testament.
- Just 37% of those interviewed could name all four Gospels.
- Only 42% of adults were able to name as many as five of the Ten
Commandments correctly.
- 70% were able to name the town where Jesus was born, but just 42%
could identify Him as the person who delivered the Sermon on the
Mount.3
Researcher George Barna also documented the lack of Bible knowledge in the United States:
- 38% of Americans believe the entire Bible was written several decades
after Jesus' death and resurrection. (While this is true of the New
Testament, the entire Old Testament was written hundreds of years
before the birth of Jesus Christ.)
- 12% of adults believe that Noah's wife was Joan of Arc.
- 49% believe that the Bible teaches that money is the root of all evil. (The
love of money is said to be the root of all types of evil.)
- 75% believe that the Bible teaches that God helps those who help
themselves.4
So I ask, "Are we taking our privilege of being able to study (and having ample Bibles at our disposal) for granted?" Am I?
Yentl helps her aging father get settled into bed, and then she prays,
"God, our merciful Father,
I'm wrapped in a robe of light
Clothed in your glory
That spreads its wings
over my soul.
May I be worthy.
Amen."
She continues in full voice ("Where Is It Written?").
These initial words command my attention:
"There's not a morning I begin without
A thousand questions running through my mind,
That I don't try to find the reason
And the logic in the world that God designed."
Is it not time to find our hunger, our ravenous appetites, and dig into God's word? I certainly cannot have an intimate relationship with God if I do not know Him, or know about Him.
Lord, may I, too, be clothed in your glory, worthy of your grace and the privilege of hungrily studying your precious and holy word. Amen!
1 George Gallup, Jr., The Role of the Bible in American Society (Princeton: The Princeton Religion Research Center, 1990)
3 Gallup, The Role of the Bible in American Society
4 Barna, "The Bible." The information is from the years 1994, 1997, 1994, and 2000 respectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment