How important is it to read the Bible regularly?
Readership: Christians
Reader’s Note: The theme for September is Faith and Maturity.
Length: 500 words
Reading Time: 2 minutes
The Center for Bible Engagement conducted an extensive study among churches, schools, and the general population.
- 40,000 people in the United States
- 400,000 people worldwide
- Ages 8 to 80
- 24 Countries
- 75+ denominations
- Several major religions
The purpose of the study was to determine the habits and influence of Bible reading.
- How are people engaging the Scriptures?
- What effect does it have on their lives?
They found that reading the Bible less than three times a week had a negligible impact. But those who read their Bible more than four times a week, there was a significant difference. Compared to those who read their Bible less, those reading the Bible more than four times a week were…
- 30% less likely to feel lonely.
- 32% less likely to have anger issues.
- 40% less likely to experience bitterness in their relationships (marriage and children).
- 57% less likely to struggle with alcoholism.
- 60% less likely to feel spiritually stagnant.
- 61% less likely to view pornography.
- 228% more likely to share their faith testimony with others.
- 230% more likely to disciple others.
- 407% more likely to memorize scripture.
Those are some pretty impressive numbers.
Case Study — Jack’s Experience
Personally, I do not read the Bible and pray every day, but rather, once every two or three days. This is about 3-4 times a week, on average. Whenever I read the Bible, I’ll read several chapters at once, and I do a lot of contemplation and soul searching. I am content with this habit, because God speaks to me, and I am always spiritually fed.
Interestingly, I’ve found that if I push myself to read the Bible every day, it seems to have a detrimental effect to my spiritual life. After a couple weeks of this, God stops talking to me through my devotions, and the fresh newness that accompanies the experience dies away. It can be extremely difficult to recover from this as well. I’ve always been confused about why this is. (My account of this experience is described in the three posts from 2009 under Related.)
Can anyone relate to this?
Impressions or Obsessions?
Our current impression of godliness has a strong emphasis on being involved in church and bible studies, carrying a bible, sitting in Bible studies, conversing about Bible verses, studying theology, and being a Bible book worm.
But we also have the connotation that a man who maintains such habits is socially ignorant, and generally unattractive, even to the extent of being a wimpy academic nerd. Of course, the Blue Pilled femcentric convergence of progressive churchianity, and the general collection of traits that it imposes on men, may be partly to blame for this impression.
But how much Bible reading is required for one to be truly godly? According to this study, about four times a week. Other than that, receiving the benefits of reading the Bible doesn’t necessarily require all of the above.
Exit Questions
- Cause and Effect: Does reading the Bible induce spiritual regeneration, or does regeneration draw one to read the Bible more frequently?
- History: How have your Bible reading habits changed over the years, and how has this impacted you during different periods of your life?
- Personal Application: What are your habits in reading the Bible?
- Personal Experience: What effect does reading the Bible have on your life?
- Vetting: Could a woman’s habits in reading the Bible be used as a vetting qualification?
Related
Please go to The Center for Bible Engagement to read many more findings of the study. There is a pull-down menu at the bottom of the page.
- Σ Frame: A Spiritual Death (2009 December 8)
- Σ Frame: Growing “Roots” in Faith (2009 December 12)
- Σ Frame: God’s Silence During Suffering (2009 December 14)
- Wintery Knight: How I retained my Christian faith, sobriety and chastity on a university campus (2019 August 25)
- Wintery Knight: To be a Bible-believing Christian, you have to be comfortable working alone (2020 August 30)
- Wintery Knight: Have You Ever Read the Bible in Order to Find Out What God Thinks? (2021 April 9)
- Radix Fidem: From a Different World (2021-09-04)
- Radix Fidem: Counsel of the Holy (2021-09-05)
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Vetting.
I know Bible thumping wives who look holy on the outside but, boy are they mean on the inside,. Hard to live with. I pity their husbands.
I guess it depends to what purpose?
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I am not a Bible thumper, in the sense that the term is typically used. I’ve struggled with that most of my Christian life. I love God, love His word, love His people, and try to live upright. But I have -for some reason- never really been able to be so spiritual as to be… “Unsensual”? I’m not sure if that’s even a word.
I have had to make peace with the fact that I do my best and that my husband is – from his own lips – very pleased with my performance and fruitfulness as a wife. I’ve also been blessed with friends who actually admire the way I love my husband even if they themselves don’t feel compelled to pull out all of the stops in all of the same ways. Which is as it should be because they are married to different men than I am.
Walking out the truth of God’s word is both universal (10 commandments, Galatians 5, etc.), AND individual (let every woman submit to her own husband).
All that to say that Bible reading is a great thing, and a good sign, but not by itself. The devil quoted Scripture at Jesus.
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Bible reading as a vetting tool is suspect because it is only the first half of the equation. The second and more telling half of studying the bible is the application of that knowledge (wisdom). The application of biblical knowledge is where there is great value in vetting a potential spouse, both for men and women. Over the nearly 2 decades with Mrs. Apostle I have seen instances that suggest a more churchian understanding of scripture that comes from sitting in the pews but not reading and meditating on the word herself.
Take for example Rock’s comment below at 9:54. The woman he was messaging with knows what scripture says about the FAAAA-buuu-lus parades (celebrating sexual sin), but appears to either not take the word seriously or be more comfortable not confronting sin than in confronting it (there is obviously space for loving sinners and tactfully dealing with the subject but her comment that Rock was too conservative for her in his views is more telling of my take on her).
Using Elspeth as the counter example here is what I have gleaned from reading her comments. While her initial attraction to SAM had little to do with his scriptural acumen at the time, she has shown the ability to take correction (admittedly not her favorite, but she does it anyway) and to follow God’s instructions for how wives are to love, honor and obey their husbands and be the caretaker of her husband’s household. If you think of the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, she is demonstrating them through the application of scripture to her own life. And since humans are quite consistent, I know that there are times when it is hard for her to do so because she really isn’t feeling it.
Bottom line, the vetting criterion comes from the application of scripture to life which will show up in behaviors, not merely the book knowledge from reading consistently.
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This is a Protestant site – I respect that. The equivalent for a Catholic or Orthodox would be going to mass 4 times a week or whatever (they are encouraged to read the scriptures as well). I guess the point is people who actually practice their faith in some sort of disciplined manner are going to have less of the issues you describe.
I think Jason touched on something important. How Christian kids are raised. Homeschool, Christian school, sheltered from the culture because we want to protect them. But this can create the goobery Christian boys that Elspeth daughter’s aren’t attracted to.
I wasn’t Harley McCarjackerson but I was turned out on the streets (we all were back then) and e.g. was involved in some petty crime (breaking into a doctor’s house), got in fights, etc. The church tried to send a Ned Flanders type boy to minister to me and I wanted nothing to do with him. When I met my wife I wasnt a thug but I wasn’t a goober. I had “fun” qualities including fornicating e.g. in public places.
My older boys were homeschooled and sheltered and I’m worried they have got the goober issue. By contrast I turned the younger boys loose. My alpha has had the cops called on him multiple times (the latest for having a knife) and he’s already had two girlfriends albeit little kid girlfriends. My oldest 2 boys, 20 and 18, havent even been on a date.
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DO NOT SAY “Elspeth’s daughters”!
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Why not? I dont think it would offend her. I think she said the boys they go to church with are a bit dorky and her girls aren’t real interested. If I’ve said something inappropriately personal I’ll ask that my comment be deleted.
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Let me explain, Cameron. What you said was fine, actually, because I know your intentions were innocent. You were simply making the point that in general, the average men in the pews of the average church are not the types of men my daughters, specifically, are drawn to. There are a whole bunch of reasons for that, most of them directly related to the types of men they have been raised around.
What I do NOT like, and it is a thing Deti is prone to do, is using the derogatory term “Daughters of Elspeth” in reference to any and all Christian women who are not connecting with the men in their midst. I have called him out on that because it’s an unfair characterization of my daughters (lumping him in with your average fake EAP), and no matter what he says, it is not possible for him to trademark that saying in a way that doesn’t induce the reader to think of me, my family, and my daughters when they read it. So I asked him not to do it anymore.
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Well I mean as a young man I wasnt real interested in being friends with Christian dorks (I feel guilty about that now) so I can understand that girls aren’t drawn to Ned Flanders son.
Liberty University had a commercial years ago. They showed a homeschool Christian dork being dropped off by minivan mom. Then he discovered that LU was really a fun hip hop place to party with Jesus. It was a kinda comical marketing gimmick to get your Christian dork son out of his shell.
All of this reminds me of the discussion we had here where we observed modern society rewards you for sin including relationship wise.
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It is NOT a derogatory term. It is a DESCRIPTIVE term. But out of respect for you, I haven’t used it again.
Christian women who are not connecting with the men in their midst bear most of the responsibility for said nonconnections. This is NOT all men’s fault.
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I wonder if women don’t really bear the blame. If they’re incapable of attraction to all but a few men and if attraction is a necessary ingredient then marriage failure is simply a force of nature and inevitable social trends. E’s daughters and other women can’t force themselves to feel what they don’t feel. They’re not to blame and neither are men. Marriage was simply a necessity until a couple of generations ago, especially if they wanted babies. Now it’s not. What’s the point of blaming someone?
If what we’re saying is true, marriage can only work for a few. Attractive men and maybe a few Christians of extraordinary faith.
Women’s only blame is to not recognize this and accept that most of them probably wont be able to have a marriage absent polygamy, and beta males owe them no cooperation in that pursuit.
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I prefer to say. The children of X’s House. That is the Husband of Elspeth.
They come from their Father’s Family.
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Fine. Then I don’t want to hear any more bitching and complaining here or anywhere else about men, from anyone, ever. Period.
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You know Deti, everything you say is basically correct. My only quibble is technically a man can become alpha later in a relationship. Some women, a few, can attach themselves to a young, budding alpha, maybe not want to “F- his brains out” within 2 microseconds, but see the potential and reward it. But yeah, a few technical exceptions don’t invalidate what you’re saying.
Everything you imply on this site is correct. Here’s the reality: men are rewarded both outside of and within marriage based on her tingles. Her tingles are highly discriminating (and a necessary but insufficient condition – ask Scott).
It is how it is and the world is unfair. However, we are free to (and should) warn other men. If you aren’t an alpha, the thing in marriage that makes you feel most loved, desired, wanted, appreciated, etc. will be denied, except when the planets align properly for her. She wants you for paychecks, emotional support, and just because they want a man, they have to have A man. They want A man but not you. Not really. Not that way. If you were an alpha, you would be given this freely with a happy heart. Men need to understand this so they can make their choice. Women need to understand this too so they don’t have an excuse to b!tch when they don’t get a man, as beta men opt out and alphas continue to have non-committal fun. Everyone needs to be informed – then there’s no blame. Men need to understand that the single greatest motivation for men to get married (alongside children I suppose) is contingent on your alphaness. Men need to understand you give up your whole life, the opportunity cost of relationships with other women, etc. for this commitment. I think if men know this, more of them won’t marry. We didn’t understand because our father’s generation was the height of Blue Pill cluelessness.
Our women’s auxiliary and Scott are clear proof of what I’m describing. If my reward in marriage is based on innate qualities that I don’t possess then I don’t want the trouble of marriage. No ma’am.
[Jack: Comment of the week right there.]
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Actually Deti I somewhat disagree with the “F- your brains out” approach too. Because women can fake it. You really need to make an honest assessment of your own alphaness before you marry. Most men are capable of self-assessment and know where they stand in the male hierarchy.
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Men need to understand that the more beta you are the more “transactional”/exchange-based the character of the relationship is and the more icky, rape-y, prostitute-y – the relationship will be for her. She’ll feel used for that. Not the case if you’re alpha.
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Another thing while I’m ranting. As a husband you won’t be rewarded for kindness but the touch-of-douche-i-ness that alphabux men bring to the table will be rewarded, or at least the reward of their intrinsic attractiveness won’t be punished despite their touch-of-douche-i-ness.
The high school dynamic never really ends – Scott is right that the winners and losers (excepting a few late bloomers) is determined by your teens. Oh well, I have one alpha son that will pass my name on and be a happy man. Most men should be able to figure out if marriage is a good deal by the time they reach adulthood. Hint: for most of them it’s not.
It’s hard to tell whether you’re luckier being a beta or a gamma. On one hand, gammas have NOTHING wrt romantic love, sex, female companionship, children. On the other hand, they’re free and can pursue their own happiness. Alphas don’t have to worry about the relative merits of these two dilemmas that most men face.
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No guarantees of course but a woman who enthusiastically reads the Bible or attends frequent mass is going to be a better bet Jack.
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I read the Bible through for the first time in 1996 – some in the morning, and some at night. It was the most transformational year of my life. I wasn’t trying to change, but the Word changed me anyway.
I do much better when I do a chapter in the morning and a chapter at night. Keeps me focused on God.
If you are short on time, listen to the Bible on your commute. The average chapter is less than 4 minutes. You can download it for free at Bible.is .
The PrayerMate app is great for prayer. Prayer is not my strong suit, but that app helps.
If you aren’t reading the Bible regularly it is because you’ve decided not to.
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1 Thessalonians 5:17
http://www.tektonics.org/TK-THESS.php
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If reading the Bible (by itself) had any power, you could just translate it into some African bush language, drop it into the middle of a tribe and 100 years later there would be a fundamentalist church with a white building, steeple, an “elder board,” little communion cups, ladies Bible studies and potluck Sundays. At least that’s the way I figure the sola scriptura theory plays out. Growing up, that’s essentially what I was taught.
Growing up in a conservative Christian home, a private Christian school (until HS) and even in seminary I was required to memorize huge segments of it. Had to learn Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic portions that were the really important ones. Theology classes, hermeneutics, etc.
And now I almost never quote it exactly. I paraphrase it, because I have a pretty good idea of what it means and how it is applied in particular situations. And in some places, it applies nowhere near the way people use it. Which makes me want to gouge my eyeballs out.
The only time I ever hear it read outloud now is in church, and mostly in Serbian or Slavonic. Which is cool. Not sure where I am going with this, but Cameron is right. Reading it daily now in the RSV or something like that would seem silly to me.
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Our view of the Bible is going to be different. It isn’t the only way or even primary way the faith is transmitted. If it were it would have been written like a catechism. And it isnt really separable from the historic and visible Church.
But I think to the extent this post is tied to “attractiveness” (the theme this month I think) you could substitute catholic or Orthodox practice for reading the bible. Interesting my phone capitalizes Orthodox but not catholic.
[Jack: The theme for September is “Faith and Maturity”. I introduced the topics of godliness and attractiveness to examine how they relate to faith and maturity.]
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It’s because your phone knows that Orthodoxy totally rules.
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Still love how scripture sounds when read aloud from The King James Version. The KJV of the bible I have now, I bought in Santa Rosa at a Greek Orthodox church-shop if truth be told.
I went to your standard “Hallmark christian-big-hair-lady store”. A gazillion Bibles for sale. Not one King James Version. The hipster-christian worker (heavy horn rimmed glasses, pants that were a bit too tight on purpose, of course sleeve tats, good hair) says, “As important as it is, the KJV is no longer relevant or authentic. Have you tried the new, new, new living water translation? It’s excellent!”
No thanks. Aside from no KJV Bible, the store did have tons of aisles of “christian romance novels”, lots trinkets, christian cards… The men’s section btw only had books dealing with “porn addiction”.
I know I could have ordered one online…… but no likes the KJV anymore evidently.
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Good field research for us Jason – thanks!
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“Christian” Book Stores (very few of which exist in brick-and-mortar form anymore) have become as unsavory as tattoo parlors or adult book stores. The inevitable fruit of churchianity, where reading the Bible itself requires too much intellectual effort for spiritually lazy people, so they demand comic books and soft porn with a fish label slapped on it instead.
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Well…… Protestants don’t seem to use it anymore…… or rarely. When I was selected to read Word on Sundays at The Salvation Army, I always read out of the KJV. Then for the message, the Officer would kind-of-joke, “Brother Jason did a fantastic job reading… but lets put up the Recovery Version, something everybody can understand…”
I like the KJV just for the fact the faint memories of those rare times growing up we would go to church (Anglican / Episcopal) and that is what I heard read. My parents loved to read aloud to each other to me and my brother. Sometimes stuff from Proverbs was read, out of the KJV… It was beautiful. That was one of the things my parents LOVED doing with each other. Dishes put away, dinner cleaned up……. tea……. and they would read aloud stories, novels to us, and to each other. If not that, TV was rarely on….. music playing on the stereo quietly — a record, or reel-to-reel mix, or that “FM lite rock station” that every market has….
Wonderful memories.
You know what I really miss in protestant churches today????
A church organ. Only a modern praise band, or as my Catholic friend says, “Even in the Catholic church, not as much organ music…. but always an angry lady with a guitar singing now.”
Even in the Salvation Army……. few brass bands left. A “modern praise band” and we have to have this or else “the young people won’t come” (rolls eyes).
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We were continuing Anglican in 2000s. Always read out of KJV. Church had an organ hooked to a CD player since we didnt have an organist. Priest would have me hit play at e.g. the Agnus Dei during the sung mass. The experience made mass stressful to me.
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If something MUST be done in obnoxious English….
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I’m pretty attached to the English patrimony, worship. Benedict’s personal ordinariate was a good thing.
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Can’t go wrong with King James English as Liturgical language.
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Saint David, who convinced the majority of the Welsh clans by actual action, and actually following Jesus, not just talking about it convinced them to end their Druidic paganism. It must have been a challenge, and he must have been not only very convincing but convicted.
No bibles. No “podcasts” or programs or established churches on every town and village corner. No publications. No “tools” or christian publishing houses, no “experts” to make sure what he was teaching was “correct” . No bold words like “outreach” and no youth program……………………..and NO BUILDING PROGRAM / MINISTRY
Just a man who obviously was prayed up, had the conviction, talent and probably the time to build relationships and convince these clans of Christ in the 4th century.
Lords Prayer in Welsh. Aside from Greek. Welsh is the oldest, still spoken language in Europe.
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I always assumed the charm of making from the movie Excalibur was in Welsh but the internet says it’s old Gaelic.
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The Lord’s Prayer in three German “dialects” (mutually unintelligible languages really) high, middle and low. The third, low is close to my paternal ancestors’ dialect. Germany had so many languages, no wonder the Church used Latin.
My last name is a low German noun that refers to a “strike, punch, slap”, etc. An old German woman at a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran church recognized it.
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Well…… I know your last name then Cameron! When I lived in what used to be West Germany…… I found it to be impeccably tidy, picked up, and clean. I joked with my peers here and there when they dissed the USA, I would say, “Hey…… you guys burned Rome and threw the West into the dark ages, we’re still waiting for an apology for that. Forget the second world war.”
I drive a Volkswagen. My Jetta was assembled in Mexico……. but the engine and transmission was still cast, built and engineered in Germany. Hence I know the car will last.
When I met my relatives in Wales (met them before, they visited in the 1980’s, and many did come to my mothers funeral). Early morning walks in the medieval walled town they lived in. I was confused because it was so beautiful, poetic and inspiring. “Why did my mother up and leave this????”
And many probably wonder the same about me if they ever visited The Adirondacks. “How could you leave this???”
Though, my mother was a driven woman. Not a Libby Dole type, going to Harvard….. no, but an attitude that didn’t blame problems of being Welsh on the English. It wasn’t like where my father came from. Wales in the early 1960’s was far from a backward country, or kingdom.
The power of that German though…. that was the language of Luther.
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I don’t care what the modern translations and their apologists want to say, all the time, I run into places where the modern translation does not quite mean the same thing as the KJV. Here’s a small example using Joshua 24:15 (not to turn this into some crazy translation competition).
King James Bible
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
New International Version
“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
— And != But
— Seem evil != undesirable
— “Choose you this day” is a stronger command than “choose for yourselves this day”.
— “which your fathers served” is more descriptive than “the gods your ancestors served”, as it reinforces proper authority.
— “on the other side of the flood” vs. “Euphrates — It definitely evokes a different image that may or may not be helpful, but it seems to say more than the gods your fathers worshipped when you lived over there versus the ones folks around here worship.
— Dwell is a synonym of live, but has additional meanings implying less permanence, and in this instance, to me, is a reminder that the Israelites were not permanently settled.
— House vs. household? Maybe I’m only splitting hairs here, but it seems somehow to have a different meaning, perhaps just complicating things for the sake of being complicated.
Just some random thoughts on a Saturday.
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Dang it. WordPress stripped out my dashes which helped to format my points.
[Jack’s Yoda impression: Need double dashes, you do.]
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Jack, thank you for fixing my stuff. Double dashes and markup. I will bone up on my wordpress formatting.
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My personal reading habits are more like Jack’s. The “must read everyday approach” inevitably leads me to treating Bible reading the same as brushing my teeth or brewing my morning cuppa. Sometimes that means I read everyday and others it may be as little as 2 or 3 days a week.
SAM and I do read a chapter a day, every weekday, with our girls. It does us good to read with them but it’s a different thing.
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Speaking for myself, sometimes the Bible contributes to that.
I was born again when I was 19, and Matthew 5: 27 – 28 caused me and a lot of other young men quite a bit of grief. The passages about how believers will be persecuted during the end times didn’t exactly calm the nerves either.
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Very cool! I’ve made it a habit to read the Bible every day, except on days where I’m sleep deprived or know I have to get up super early the next day. I never “push” myself if my mind isn’t equipped to absorb the information. But like your stats indicated, for me, reading the Bible is a source of refuge for me. Some days, especially on days where I have to contend with this Atheist on my boss’s radio show, I can’t wait to come home and read the Bible to replenish my strength and shake off the negativity.
When it comes to Vetting… don’t laugh, but I just started online dating again. I have it on my profile that I’m a “Practicing Christian who lives by Bible principles”. I connected with a lovely black lady, age 27. She had on her profile that she’s a Christian too.
After days of chatting and being one message away from giving her my number, I hit her with this one last question, “If the Bible tells us that God views a thing as an abomination, but the world says its okay and even celebrates it with parades… how do you sway?”
She said, “I wouldn’t lose sleep over the parades. I have gay friends and don’t feel a need to remind them of my beliefs. You seem more conservative in your opinions so I don’t think we’ll be compatible.”
She didn’t really answer my question. But in her answer I knew enough to know she’s right. We’re not compatible. I simply replied, “I understand” 🙂 and stopped communicating with this one. She seemed a decent person, but we’re on two different levels spiritually.
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@ Rock
Most Christian women live by their feelings, much like most secular women do. When confronted with conflict between their Christian beliefs and their feelings, feelings win, every time.
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Many women have a very hard time not following popular trends. They tend to be hard creatures.
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This highlights one of the vital aspects of masculine headship; fighting the tendency women have to let their moral compass be swayed by cultural trends and the feelz.
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Actually, yes, she did, even if not directly. She spared you from wasting any more time and energy on her.
Sadly, MOST “Christian” women you’ll meet are like this. Don’t ask them to choose between the demands of the faith and the demands of the world, because the world always wins.
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Correct. She didn’t answer specific “my” question, but the answer she gave me was exactly what I needed. To be honest…that’s exactly why I ask them to choose. To see if the world wins. I’m not dismissive of the possibility that a man with a strong frame can lead her away from the world, but this particular prospect lived in Daytona Beach, close to three hours away from me. So for me to commit myself to such a pursuit, I needed that one answered. If she chose the Bible, believe me, I would’ve at least gave her a shot. Because like you said, she would be different from the “most”.
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The above sparked a thought which I think might be helpful before I vamoose for the long weekend.
I have never thought of godliness this way (that first paragraph), and despite having a dad who I watched sit at the kitchen table and read his Bible every morning, and he taught Bible classes for most of the latter half of his life. But here was the thing. He never walked around quoting Scriptures, although the wisdom he dispensed was clearly based on spiritual principles. He wasn’t a Bible book worm either. He believed people massively overcomplicate what it takes to live a good Christian life because they are looking for loopholes and caveats. He hated that.
For example, my father owned completely and fully why his first marriage ended. It never occurred to him to blame his ex-wife for his decisions and indiscretions. I always admired him for that. When he hit the straight and narrow, he stayed on it. Period.
His philosphy was, “I do what I know is right, I admit it when I don’t, I don’t feel the need to explain myself to people, and I’m not going to. Period.”
My husband is the same way. He doesn’t say this verbatim, but he lives it: “I do what I know is right, I admit it when I don’t, I don’t feel the need to explain myself to people, and I’m not going to. Period.”
This, I believe is the essence of godliness. There were strong, godly men in the world before mass literacy and before Gutenberg’s mass printing of the Scriptures.
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What I was touching on….. when I was an active Uniform wearing Salvationist……… the younger boys and teens RAISED in the church, seemed a bit…….. not bad kids, not total losers…. but….. errrrrrrr….. ummmmmmmmmmm……… not young men. Okay, you don’t have to go to the gym six times a week at this age. Nor do you have to be “in trouble” so to speak. Just very…… baby-like in relation to the world. At their youth group, I would CRINGE when they performed. 13, 14, 15 year-olds singing in the youth Songers (choir) all “touching the weeping face of Jesus” songs, or just “little kid / baby church songs”.
Their study… I looked over their materials was pretty much (like most churches) seven to ten years behind the times. The young and teen girls seemed to blossom, mature and seemed mature, or appropriate for their age. The boys were stunted. Badly.
I would at times think to myself, “When that boy is 25, 27, or 30….. he is going to be angry at God. Really angry, and he will more than likely “leave” the faith totally.”
I would try to explain the materials……. to other churchmen….. “Look, let’s get the teen boys to come to the men’s group….” (It wasn’t perfect, but the talk was mature, and the issues were at least grown up.)
“No. No. No. The boys can join the men’s study after they turn 21.”
It was just……. ewwwwwwwww….. and I considered myself not some “alpha leader”. I am quite compassionate, and don’t fit typical male trappings on everything………. but even I was cringing.
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We see this all over Protestant churchianity, especially in evangelitard churches. To me, there is no clearer evidence that churchianity has enthusiastically joined the wider contemporary culture in its War On Boys And Men.
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We kept getting visits from this older Jehovah’s Witness lady. I’m terminally polite and listened respectfully to their pitch. She kept showing me these goofy cartoons. I’m thinking, “Lady, I’m forty something.” My wife didn’t like her and isn’t as polite (to other women) as I am.
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I have extensive background and training to be a school teacher. It was my undergrad! I have a BS in elementary ed / special ed, at the Salvation Army I very much after being vetted, trusted… wanted to LEAD the youth / kids programs (YPSM) Young Peoples Sergeant Major.
No. No. No. “That’s women’s work” mentality, and of course… I was a former addict and had NO BUSINESS being around or working with children (despite a clean background check). Young boys are being ordered around at home by women, and older sisters. Being ordered around ALL DAY by women in the younger grades in school. Public and private schools in the lower grades are “man deserts”.
Many boys have no dad at home. Here I was, “Hey, I want to do this!”
When they said “No” after the third time I tried, I decided to call up the Boy Scouts of America. I was taken in immediately after background checks, and verifying my educational background. I ran the Boy Scout Troop, but was very hands on with the younger Cub Scouts. I finally grew the downtown Fresno Troop and Pack in well over 65 boys. It was the first BSA Troop / Pack in downtown Fresno since the 1970’s.
Yet…… a man working with young children is considered “womens work” or worse….. a closet pervert / homosexual.
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My dad always wanted to be a elementary school teacher too. He loved kids. His dad was a doctor, his moms family lawyers. They told him, “No! You can be a doctor or lawyer!” He said, “f-you” and became none of the above. He became a father and low skill menial worker. He was happy.
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I went into this field because it was really “all I knew” because of my older brother (Downs Syndrome with profound mental retardation). I wanted to be an architect, but my grades were just not high enough….my drafting in shop class in high school was very good (public and private) but I did not have enough higher math backing and my overall GPA just was not high enough for an architecture program at a state college university, nor a private one….and def not at a polytechnic.
I left teaching after my student teaching. There was no way I was going to work in the school after THAT. Angry women. Angrier administrators…..and the Unions were pure evil. The parents were impossible (and the christian / conservative ones were actually WORSE in dealing with).
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It is a shame Jason, that there are enough perverts out there and the consequences of child sex abuse are so great that people have to be suspicious of men who want to be around children even men who are innocent and have nothing but good intentions.
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Hey….. That’s the breaks… a schools loss. Not mine! 🙂 This job and career field I am in I actually like, and I do it well…. albeit I am slower than others here, but my work gets done. 🙂
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Glad you like your job. I don’t hate mine but feel it’s pointless make work and that we’re raping the American taxpayer.
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Again, all part of the very carefully and deliberately orchestrated War On Men And Boys. Destroying bonds between adult men and younger boys, the type of bonds that created future generations of functioning adult men throughout human history past, is the entire goal. That “churches” not only condone this, but aid, abet, and enthusiastically contribute to it is, in my opinion, a major factor that adds them to the “Not A Real Christian Church” list.
In other words, the more feminized and anti-male a “church” is, the more clearly non-Christ-centered it is.
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Interesting post. I read the Bible, aka have a quiet time just about every day, and have been for 40 years. It’s a habit and I do get a lot out of it, some days more than others. All the posts above had me think through the WHY I do this. One, it’s obviously a habit; but two, and just as importantly, it grounds me for the day–gets me started, coffee and my quiet time, and I’m good to go. I don’t feel everyone needs to do this, but it works for me; my wife does the same thing. She has her own devotional, separate from me everyday (BTW, when I hear of Christian couples doing it together, I go, “Get out of here! No freaking way would I do that!”
Even though our 32 year marriage has seen it’s ups and downs, I do think it has been helping us as a couple to have this practice (habit). Not a marital ‘magic bullet’ bullet or anything like it, maybe more along the line of the Ecclesiastes verse that refers to a chord of three strands being tough to break — me, her, and Christ. An ‘in the background’ kind of effect.
Interestingly, my two adult children, 30 and 29, do not have this habit, no where near it. Heck, they don’t even go to church as far as I know except on rare occasions. None of this rubbed off on them. At least my married 30 year old son is nowhere near being a ‘christian dork,’ has had a number of girlfriends when he was single, however he is Blue Pilled, no doubt about it. My daughter, she’s engaged, been living with her fiancé for five years, she was pretty much a ‘good girl’ until college, and a CHRISTIAN college at that — What can I say? I was a Blue Pill dad back then.
As far as my Christian dating years, not a problem with any of the women, although they didn’t seem to care one whit about how ‘spiritual’ I was, other than it checked one box of theirs, and I don’t think it was a box near the top of their list. It was the other attraction factors — looks/build (not hawt sexy stud or anything like it, but pretty good overall), plus a good job, money, living on my own, sports car… That’s what drew them. Interestingly, the one that rejected me, the one I thought I was going to marry, the 24 year old Churchian CC rider that I’d known since she was 20 and I was 25, I think in large measure she did reject me because of my spirituality. Those other things I listed above, did not hold sway over her. I really do believe my ‘godliness’ was the primary deal breaker with her; that, and she wanted to follow the Feminist Life Script.
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Liked this opening paragraph from the Feminist Life Script post! This is what happened with the young lady I was TRYING to court towards marriage. She wanted to be a lawyer, went to school for it, rode the CC, got the degree, went out into practice and apparently failed miserably at it. Last pic I saw of her, she was post-wall and I didn’t even recognize her at first in the photo. I mean, no joking, I had to look hard at her pic to get it that it was really her. She’d put on I’m guessing, 75-100 pounds, and her beautiful, youthful face was, idk how to put it exactly, how about just saying plain awful. Apparently never married and no kids as far as I could tell from her FB page. It was sad and I did feel vindicated to be quite honest, not in a malicious sort of way, but in a deep down, “I knew I was right” kind of way. Even though I was blue pilled at the time. and her dumping me for the feminist life script tore my heart apart until I got over my depression about it; I did end up moving forward powerfully with my life and it all worked out well for me in the end. Thank God!
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There is a reason that the word of God is called the sword of the spirit. It is relatively inert in the hands of the unsaved.
It is a dead letter for unbelievers. But is alive in the believer.
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I’ve enjoyed reading the comments on this post. What it provokes in me would too easily turn into a small booklet of explaining my own background, so I’m trying to keep it brief. Within that background, I was in the evangelical ministry, but seldom got paid anything for the ministry work I did. Instead, I worked an awful lot of other jobs to support my ministry convictions. Sure, they influenced my personality, but none of them reflect who I am. Now I’m retired. Over the past two decades, all my ministry has been online, and I’m quite certain the emphasis will return to real-world service, in part because the virtual world is morphing into something totally different, and far less of a blessing.
I don’t read the Bible every day. Right now, I’m going back over the commentaries I’ve published about the Bible, revising them in preparation for print-on-demand, and enjoying it immensely. There was a time when it was critical for me to read the Bible daily, sometimes several hours daily. I firmly believe there are seasons when God’s people crave it and will do that, until they absorb enough of it to get a sense of what He requires of them individually.
My point here is that I’m convinced we live in a deeply perverted culture, and it is terminal. I expect to see a lot of it collapse before I die, and I won’t miss it. The problem is that most people think about the issue of Bible reading and study in terms of their existing culture, usually one of several variations. A major element in my ministry now is trying to define a wholly separate culture. It’s not as if I imagine it’s the “One True Way” but at least something different, and perhaps a lot closer to what the Bible promotes. It would be radically different from anything I see today. At any rate, any comments I might make about reading the Bible would require putting it in that setting.
I won’t promote Bible reading as a discipline within the common cultural setting. People who consider themselves servants of Christ need the Word, but not the way I’ve seen it handled in my own past.
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In response to Lastmod’s comment: 2021-09-04 at 10:40 am
As horrible as the socioeconomic deterioration in the land of my father’s family has been since the end of World War II, I still feel a small glimmer of hope for Wales in that it has been the scene of major revivals almost every 100 years since the early 18th century. It would be amazing and wonderful if another one took place in this century that inspired the rest of Britain, or even the world.
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I remember people like this from when I lived in the states. It was like a subculture with it’s own lingo that I could never get. This kind of social communication was similar to the Mennonite communities I knew, except the Mennonites were less hubristic and a lot more disciplined and humble. IOW, they had dignity and grace.
I’m curious to see reader’s perspectives. When you think of the word “churchianity”, is this what comes to your mind?
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Partly. When I think of “churchianity” I mostly think of the North American Christian church’s open worship and pedestalization of women and its hostility to men, sex, the male sex drive, and male sexual desire. The Church is squeamish about these things mostly because they make limp wristed sunken chested men and then complain that those men can’t assert themselves, can’t attract women, and can’t live their lives. They create these men, excoriate them when those men act like what they were created to be, and then demand they do things they cannot do.
James Dobson, Dennis Rainey, Bob Lepine, twice divorced/thrice married Steve Arterburn, Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll, John Piper, John MacArthur, Bob and Audrey Meisner, Todd Friel – that’s churchianity. Smarmy (Friel), faux masculine bullying (Driscoll), self righteous (MacArthur), hypocritical (Arterburn), clueless and unaware (Piper, Dobson, Rainey, Chandler), cucked (Meisner). That’s churchianity.
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I don’t even know why I comment or write about any of this stuff anymore. None of it is going to change. It’s going to get really really bad for men, and it’s going to get really really REALLY bad for Christian men.
The worst it will get for Christian women is that more and more of them will do what they are already doing: To marry men they can have sex with without puking in their mouths, they’ll leave the faith. Many of them will marry men they don’t want, just so they can say they were able to get married. They will then divorce because “their Holy Spirits” told them that their husbands are not The One, and that “their Holy Spirits” released them from their marriages so they can go find The One.
They have to follow the Eleventh Commandment and “be true to themselves”, because the Twelfth Commandment requires they should “not judge”, and the Thirteenth Commandment exhorts them to avoid the Greatest Sin Women Commit, which is “not loving themselves” and “having low self esteem”.
I really think that men should just leave these women to their own devices. Let them destroy themselves. Let them destroy their own lives, and keep them as far away from men’s lives as possible. Don’t help them. Don’t save them. Don’t give them anything. Don’t spend money or time on them (unless you’re going to get something from them). Just let them hang themselves, one at a time. Only, make sure you’re as far away from them as possible when their lives explode.
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@DETI.
Even if things don’t get worse (unlikely IMO), almost half of marriages will end with 70+% initiated by her and some of the remaining being the result of him being coerced into filing. In either case an unhappy ending. Some portion of the remaining half that don’t end will also be unhappy. You are more likely to be made unhappy by any given marriage. Depending on your understanding of the faith (remarriage allowed?) you might be forced to pay her AND be celibate, forgoing opportunities with other women.
“Lord if this be the case, it is best not to marry.”
Main reason to still marry: you have an overwhelming desire to have children or you feel you won’t be able to resist fornication.
You can improve the odds by vetting and/or joining a fundie community, but no one can quantify the risks under these conditions.
Many men will still marry though because the desire for sex, female love, and being part of a loving family is so overwhelming to many men.
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Wasn’t Arterburn the one who said that even nocturnal emissions could be a byproduct of sinful sexuality?
Purity Culture sucks.
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When I think of Churchianity I think of Christians who ape the popular culture, who are a little bit behind the popular culture but close behind. Kind of like political “conservatives” are to “liberals.”
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Yes, and . . .
Before I converted to Orthodoxy, the kids and I were attending a nice, inoffensive, non-denominational church in an UMC neighborhood in an UMC city in the second wealthiest county in the state.
I had to leave.
There were small groups, and prayer breakfasts, and men’s groups, and ministries, and every single checkbox you could check, and it all felt like they were just like their UMC neighbors except they put on a religion shirt on Sunday mornings.
I don’t know if that was actually a problem with any of them. It’s the vibe I got from the people there.
Churchianity is checking off the boxes. It’s putting a veneer of Christ on everything, the fish on the car, the Christian music on the radio, giving to parachurch ministries, and studying parachurch ministry books, and arguing over the original meaning of the scriptures, and having mad epiphanies because you studied the original Greek and Hebrew, and you somehow know more, and understand more than the church fathers and those who studied the original languages of the scriptures in the centuries after the events in question when those languages were still regularly learned by educated people in Europe.
Churchianity, not Christianity.
That’s what I think of.
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Ah yes Scott! Remember those days…. and this too. Done in a humorous way, but honestly too true to when I was in the church….. and the replies are pretty much the same. Well, the popular one now is, “You may not get married, but there is no marriage in heaven, so it still works out!” I was hearing that one floating around my last year or so in the culture
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Unless you’re Mormon. Then there’s marriage and you get your own planet.
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Ed Hurst has addressed the exit questions in a post of his.
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People who love the World above all else, but who want a veneer, a façade of “holiness” to sanctify their carnal lifestyles and worldviews.
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Most of them won’t try very hard to deny this, either, once they’re accused of it. Among the more thick-skinned and apathetic, the general attitude they express in response is that trying to live one’s life as a committed Christ-follower and in accordance with biblical principles is “just too hard”, or “unrealistic, given the world we live in.” The more thin-skinned resort to the default defensive reaction of “Who are YOU to judge ME?!”
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Catholics get a bad rap for not reading their Bibles, but here’s a tell-tale sign that they have: ask if they pray a rosary regularly. I try to pray mine 3 to 4 times a week, on my lunch break. I take a little walk, and it takes about 20 min. to do a set of Mysteries.
The point of a rosary is not to slog through 50 Ave Marias. You’re supposed to be meditating on the theme of that particular decade, which is an event central to Christ’s life. Obviously these stories are packed with meaning, and you won’t be able to meditate properly unless you’ve read your Bible and are familiar with the stories. Otherwise, you mind wanders and you quit. About the third time you pray one and realize you don’t know what the Presentation is all about, you rip open your Bible and find out.
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Hey everyone. Quick update. My wife had our baby daughter about two weeks ago (5th bio-baby, 10th child overall, 6th daughter). I’ve been too busy to visit, but I’ll be back eventually. Meanwhile, have fun.
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On the topic of the post: I read the Bible with my kids 2 – 3 days a week. We start in Genesis, go all the way to Revelation, chronologically, then start all over. Reading chronologically means we read chapters of different books together. For example, we read 1st & 2nd Kings, and 1st & 2nd Chronicles together, along with the prophetic books that were written during at the same time. That means that when we’re reading about Josiah in 2nd Kings and 2nd Chronicles, we’re also starting the book of Jeremiah.
Reading the Bible chronologically helps you make a lot of connections between books that you wouldn’t make otherwise.
I start my kids at different ages, depending on their maturity, because as you know, the Old Testament is pretty gnarly. And we don’t skip any of it. The youngest so far was 10 when he started, which is the same age I was the first time I read through the Bible with my mom.
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Congrats Oscar.
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Congratulation Oscar.
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Congrats Oscar.
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Yes, those are some pretty impressive numbers, but they can be used for sensationalism. I don’t find them very helpful. It’s the interpretation or meaning of those numbers that is important. This is because the numbers are odds ratios, that is the odds of one event is better than the odds of another event, but not the probability of one event occurring over another. Therefore the statistic, “61% less likely to view pornography” says nothing about the percentage (which is probability) of each group that actually views pornography. And since we want to discourage the viewing of pornography we need to know this statistic to evaluate the effectiveness of Bible reading.
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I read the bible every day for years. When i tell people this they are always shocked. So i dont think many christians do. I thought everybody was and i was barely keeping up.
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