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Long but amazuing article on bible sales in America.
Some quotes:
"the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year"
"forty-seven per cent of Americans read the Bible every week. But other research has found that ninety-one per cent of American households own at least one Bible—the average household owns four—which means that Bible publishers manage to sell twenty-five million copies a year of a book that almost everybody already has."
"Have you ever had a white stain appear underneath the arms of your favorite dark blouse? Don’t freak out. You can quickly give deodorant spots the boot. Just grab a spare toothbrush, dampen with a little water and liquid soap, and gently scrub until the stain fades away. As you wash away the stain, praise God for cleansing us from all the wrong things we have done. (1 John 1:9) "
'“2:52 Boys Bible: The Ultimate Manual” promises “gross and gory Bible stuff.” In the “Rainbow Study Bible,” each verse is color-coded by theme. “The Promise Bible” prints every one of God’s promises in boldface. And “The Personal Promise Bible” is custom-printed with the owner’s name (“The LORD is Daniel’s shepherd”), home town (“Woe to you, Brooklyn! Woe to you, New York!”), and spouse’s name (“Gina’s two breasts are like two fawns”).'
"the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year"
"forty-seven per cent of Americans read the Bible every week. But other research has found that ninety-one per cent of American households own at least one Bible—the average household owns four—which means that Bible publishers manage to sell twenty-five million copies a year of a book that almost everybody already has."
"Have you ever had a white stain appear underneath the arms of your favorite dark blouse? Don’t freak out. You can quickly give deodorant spots the boot. Just grab a spare toothbrush, dampen with a little water and liquid soap, and gently scrub until the stain fades away. As you wash away the stain, praise God for cleansing us from all the wrong things we have done. (1 John 1:9) "
'“2:52 Boys Bible: The Ultimate Manual” promises “gross and gory Bible stuff.” In the “Rainbow Study Bible,” each verse is color-coded by theme. “The Promise Bible” prints every one of God’s promises in boldface. And “The Personal Promise Bible” is custom-printed with the owner’s name (“The LORD is Daniel’s shepherd”), home town (“Woe to you, Brooklyn! Woe to you, New York!”), and spouse’s name (“Gina’s two breasts are like two fawns”).'
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 23:49 (UTC)From:as far as reading it every week... i suspect they're counting the tiny snippets you recite together in church. somehow i doubt 40% of america seriously sits down and studies that book each week. (if they did you'd think they'd have noticed more of the ridiculous parts...)
and i have to admit i've got three copies myself (maybe five, actually... i kept collecting copies of the little green ones they hand out for free on campus. proverbs are entertaining :-) ). The only one i paid for myself is the size of my thumb, and it got it 'cause. well. it was a bible the size of my thumb. I'm not sure i've really read any of them.
(shrugs) I don't know. If someone handed you a book and said "here. whether or not the people around you still believe in it, this book has been cited as a major foundation of your culture for the vast majority of the past 1,000 years", you'd probably pick yourself up a copy and flip through it, just out of curiosity and a sort of general respect for your ancestors. The stats don't necessarily imply that we all worship the bible and trust it implicitly. Just that we think it's worth looking at.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 23:59 (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-12-15 01:41 (UTC)From:Worse, the actual dedication to the Bible isn't a constant and frequently unknown. I've heard - but I can't prove this - that Americans in the latter half of the 19th century and early half of the 20th were _less_ religious than today. So if we want to respect such ancestors...
Second, the Bible _isn't_ particularly great.
Sure, there are good bits and even a few great bits but 80% of it is boring, ranting, silly or outright offensive. And some of the good bits become a bit more suspicious when taken in context. It is no wonder a lot of "christians" never have managed to get through the book which should define their faith, or that direct quotes are so much more popular than the overall message.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-15 06:35 (UTC)From:Yeah, 40% seems high too. Someone else suggested lying to pollsters to feel better. I didn't think of church; I was thinking vaguely of calendars with inspirational snippets on them. As for ridiculous parts... they may just consistently look at a subset. Also see opinions about how some evangelicals seem to attend more to Paul and Revelation than the Gospels (not to mention the Bible Belt having the highest divorce rates in the country.)