My New Bible

If I were to say I were a huge Jane Austen fan, I think it would be fair to assume I had read her books. But what if I said I had only read one of her books, and just really liked the movies based on them? Most people would probably consider me a pretty terrible excuse for a Jane Austen fan.

I feel like a lot of people are like that about their religion--they say how important it is to them without ever having really sat down and read the book (or books) their faith is based on. There are a lot of members of each religion who are really dedicated to knowing their stuff, sure, but I don't even think those people are in the majority, and that bothers me.

I just don't want to be one of those people. I don't feel comfortable attributing a label to myself based on something I haven't read. While my husband doesn't entirely agree that it's necessary to read the entire thing when you could just go to church and be taught about it by "experts," he doesn't think I'm crazy so he's agreed to read through the book with me.

I tried this once before with an old King James version I had on my bookshelf, but I fell asleep somewhere in the middle of that big "begot" business, so this time we're trying a compact copy of the New International Version. A lot of people don't recommend reading the thing in order, which is advice my husband and I disagree on, so we're compromising by reading the first four books of The New Testament, and then going back and starting with The Old Testament.

My goal is to analyze what I read from a neutral standpoint. I know these books were written in another time and place, and so my ignorance of the cultural context of some parts might show. I welcome any further education on any entries, and I'm okay with being corrected. I just hope I don't say something stupid that makes a bunch of people angry.

We'll see how far I get into Matthew tonight.