Reading the Bible Means Almost Nothing
And Everyone Already Knows It
A frequently drunk, unemployed, father sat in my office. He’d been recently released from the county lock-up and was headed back soon. He was a member of our church, but rarely attended worship because, as one member said, “He owes everybody money.”
He was in my office talking to me about football and family. Longtime Penn State football coach, Joe Paterno had just died after revelations that Paterno knew about and overlooked assistant Penn State coach, Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children. The man looked me straight in the eye, saying, “They took football away from him, and it killed him.”
Okay, I thought, wondering why it seemed like football mattered more to him than abused children. Then the conversation turned to his own kids. That’s when he said what stunned me. Pointing to the Bible laying at the edge of my desk, he said, “I tell people I raise my kids according to every word in that book.”
Trust me when I tell you.I don’t not think the Bible factored into his parenting.
