lol, the year of the Bible.
such paganism!

This is about something *Broun* said. He says 'flat-taxing' all the people in Georgia so that the rich and poor alike pay the same will be a 'fair tax' and 'solve everything' in Georgia.

Forget about what he claims to know about 'God, he don't even know his *job.* He sends out voter surveys asking which nonsensical conservative agenda people 'want' him to prioritize, not even a check mark for ''What are you, stupid?'

Ever try writing your congressman and find the email never existed?

That's Broun and his 'Voice of the People'

Feh.

Rabbi Hirschfield has written an excellent column. The Bible is the central text in American culture. It influences our literature, our language, and how different groups analyze the issues in our lives. Americans would get a better understanding of each other if we studied--in our own diverse ways--this essential text.

You.... Think in your minds that I need You?
You... think I really need anything from you?
You think your words will bring favor?
You think you can take my love and my creation all for yourselves?
You think you can take my words from my mouth and put them in yours?
You think you can play a game with my laws?
Do you really believe that for yourselves?

Oh Children playing with words ..Do you still not know what you do?

I am in the eyes of the child
watching and seeing what is done
Look into the eyes of the child
and tell me what you have done
Come and face me!

...
"Given that we already have days for secretaries, months for reading and have parsed the calendar for just about every other purpose and cause from artichokes to zebras, it's almost silly that we have not already done this."
...
By Brad Hirschfield | May 26, 2009; 10:47 AM ET

Therefore there should be no impediment with Rep. Paul Broun to propose a year of the Bible. Except of course for the rabid secularist and others of the same species.

.

The year of the Bible is about the stupidest thing I ever hear. What a cheezy grab for conservs and the relgious right to attempt to regain power.

THE original intent of seperation of church and state was to keep government out of the church, it was NEVER intended to keep church out of the government.

Franks comments were not ridiculous but in fact highlight he problme with having years of the bible etc as a political decision. If the U.S. had a year of the Koran, imagine the outcry from the bible bashers?

And therein lies the problem.

I agree, and 2011 should be the year of the book "Hansel & Gretel", in 2012 it would be "Thumbelina's" turn and of course 2013 the always classic and popular "Peter Rabbit".

TTWSYFAMDGGAHJMJ2, you said,

"They Founding Fathers weren’t talking a Buddha, or a Hindu God or Mohammad; they were talking about our Judeo-Christian heritage."

that may be true for patrick henry, john jay and MANY of the founders. the ones who WROTE THE DOCUMENTS (jefferson, madison, adams) were also thinking about christianity - but they were thinking of how to protect us and the government from christians like henry and jay (and rep. broun). they fought hard to disestablish religion.

from the bill:
"...to rediscover and apply the priceless, timeless message of the Holy Scripture..."

NOPE - that's religion. U.S. Rep. Paul Broun said, "APPLY...scripture"!

he may have tried to cloak this in some kind of academic appreciation of the influence of the bible on american culture, but let slip that "apply" scripture line. he wishes we were all (his specific kind of) christian.

i have found that ALL religion-in-society problems begin when the religious "apply" their scripture to others.

Don't tell a Hindu that his faith is illegitimate.

CELEBRATING THE BIBLE:
Those who don’t think much of the Bible might take a look at the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. They were written based on the Bible that all men were equal and endowed by God with certain inalienable rights. They Founding Fathers weren’t talking a Buddha, or a Hindu God or Mohammad; they were talking about our Judeo-Christian heritage.

Now if you want to celebrate being a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Marxist, or a Pagan, the only reason you can do that in America is because our heritage recognizes from Scripture that man has a free will.

How about 2009 being the Year of the Necronomicon?

"Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!"

"The year of 1984" would get a bit confusing I must agree. How about "The year of Oprah"

I really liked the Lord of the Rings. In particular i think i would support this idea if we made 2011 the year of "Return of the King". Or perhaps 2012 should be the year of "1984". Although that might get confusing.

I'm a secularist, but a year of exploring the bible would be a good thing. I think a lot of people who think they know the bible would be shocked at what is written in it. Perhaps if more people actually read it, biblical literalism would diminish.

We're finally in agreement on something, CCNL!

This is actually a wonderful idea. Set all the fundies against each other trying to decide which version of the bible would be the "official" version for the year. Would it be King James? Good News? Tyndales? The amplified version? New International? Some of the "hip" versions written in comic book form or in current slang? Maybe Congress should create an official government translation?

I'd pony up for the pay-per-view on this battle! My guess is that we'd have a final agreement sometime around, oh I dunno, maybe the year 2500. What an incredible bit of political pandering and buffoonery.

There definitely should be a year for Wicca especially with those eight extra holidays.

From Wikipedia-

"Wiccans, as followers of Wicca are now commonly known, typically worship a God[3] (traditionally the Horned God) and a Goddess (traditionally the Triple Goddess), who are sometimes represented as being a part of a greater pantheistic Godhead, and as manifesting themselves as various polytheistic deities. Other characteristics of Wicca include the ritual use of magic, a liberal code of morality, and the celebration of eight seasonal-based festivals."

Okay, let's have 2011 be the Year of Tantric Buddhism! Woohoo! And 2012 be the Year of Ancient Mayan Prophesies.
Posted by: Athena
**************************************************************************************
After a year of Tantra, who would even care if the Mayan prophesies WERE true?

It is a ridiculous idea. The Bible has no place in the public realm.

What next? Have a year for every other religious text?

The whole idea is nuts.

And you would have the odd Baha'i demanding for at least one year, a calendar having 19 months with 19 days with four added "strange" days, all to honor the 19 original Baha'i disciples.

"U.S. Rep. Paul Broun (R-Georgia) is trying to get his so-called Bible bill made into law. And while it's not likely to happen any time soon, it's a wonderful idea...at least in theory. What's wrong with a law which would declare 2010 the "year of the Bible"?"

Everything. Starting with whose idea it was. :)

Is this the best the Post can hire these days? What a dumb thing to propose. We've had quite enough of that wretched book for some time now, thanks.

The sheer volume of smug stupidity in this essay will make your teeth numb. It's that bad.

Okay, let's have 2011 be the Year of Tantric Buddhism! Woohoo! And 2012 be the Year of Ancient Mayan Prophesies.

I just had a longish discussion elsewhere and the bible ended up being an issue
( discussion is here, my comments are as SterlingX:
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2601013236/m/9131030757 )

The problem with the bible is "the bible as proof of God". The bible is a proof of "God" as much as the Harry Potter series is proof of Harry Potter.
The majority of judeo-christian believers live in a reality that is totally atheistic - there is no proof or manifestation of "God" in it. People who act like the people in the bible would be declared crazy by the majority of judeo-christian believers, and rightly so, even if their own prophets are exactly like this.
So, believing in "God" by combing through a single book and ignoring everything else is quite hypocritical, even if not intentionally so; it's as useful as banging your head on a wall.
The bible was written by or based on people who were by today's standards crazy or psychotic. The only way to understand what actually may have happened is to seek empathy with them.
And if you do so, you'll find out that even if miracles may have happened there is no "God" but us.

The reality of the OT and NT for those eyes that have not seen:

What have history, scriptural text reviews and archeology taught us about these foundations of these books???

1. Abraham is the reported founder of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Based on all we know now, Abraham was at best a combination of three separate individuals with 1.5 million Conservative Jews no longer believing he existed at all. (ditto for all the characters in the OT).

references: National Georgraphic review on Abraham and : http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E1EFE35540C7A8CDDAA0894DA404482

2. The founders of Christianity and Islam were both illiterate. i.e. neither one proof read or approved the NT or the Koran so we are taking the word of scribes and embellishers with their own agendas.
references: NT exegetes from the last two hundred years, Karen Armstrong's reviews of Islam and http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

3. Christianity is based on the whim of Pilate, Paul's false prophesy of the imminent second coming, and the sword of Constantine.

references: NT exegetes and their conclusions/books from the last two hundred years

"to rediscover and apply the priceless, timeless message of the Holy Scripture..."

Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong
(That's Broun who's wrong; not Hirshfeld)

The Bible's messages are firmly rooted in the time and place of their origins. The fact that Bibles are distributed as a single volume between a pair of covers does not alter the fact that it contains many widely divergent views. The whole thing can no more be reconciled than can the first two chapters of Genesis, or the stories of Jesus' birth in Matthew and Luke.

It's time to DISCOVER the Bible's diverse contents, though authors like William Dever, Richard Friedman, Lawrence Boadt, James Kugel and Isreal Finkelstein; and if you're a Christian, Bart Ehrman and Michael Goulder (via John Shelby Spong).