This post is part commentary on what I see both within my own church and society as a whole...Not that it should shock anyone that is paying attention to the state of the planet right now, but it was a smack in the face for me last week...
So as you guys may or may not know, I'm apretty big bookworm!
I've been reading like a fiend for over 20 plus years now and even though the focus of my reading choices has changed, I'm still nose deep in a book daily.
O.K., so with that out of the way, and to know my interest in the subject of reading books, let's dive in...
Part of the 'brand' of my church for as long as it's been an organized thing is being people of the Book. But not only the bible, we are told that reading is fundamental to growing in Christ.
Philippians 4:8 tells us to....
There's so much more in the bible that tells us to study, read, learn, grow....And that's why my church is big on educating ourselves with the help of the Holy Spirit in all things heavenly.
I literally work for the publishing side of my church and I can tell you....We are no longer people of the book. Very few people come into my ministry and search out bibles, books or studies...It's a big problem.
Keeping that in mind, I'm pretty sure the world is having a big impact on our church but also, religion as a whole...
Last week I decided to go to a popular book store chain here in Canada. And only a few years removed, things have changed big time.
In also every retail store I went to, you would find aisles upon aisles of religious content. Entire shelves dedicated to Christian authors. There were plenty of other shelves dedicated to Islam and Judaism as well. Every major religion had it's space in the secular book stores.
I guess it was only a matter of time because this is what I found last week...
One shelf of Christian books..A far cry from the multiple shelves that used to be dedicated to the faith...
Philosophy got lumped into faith and spirituality now, and of course that means less faith based books...Two shelves dedicated to faith and then half of the second one was philosophy books.
Along comes this stuff....
Lumped right beside books about God, we find an entire shelf dedicated to 'new age and occult' topics. I mean, they aren't even trying to hide it...
And again, this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that's of any faith around the world. But it just hit me, what's coming...Our faith will be tested. It won't be 'popular' to believe in God. In fact, as we are seeing, it will become dangerous.
This is why I believe it was told to everyone of faith, hold fast to what you have faith in. The time is coming, where the world will become dark again.
More important than ever to be the light of this world...
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Looking at comprehensive statistics for the United States - overall reading is in decline.
This story is for pleasure reading, but we can infer that the decline may be even more severe in other categories.
Working through more significant texts whether they are religious, philosophical, or other topics have some cognitive, spiritual, and contemplative benefits that are being lost.
https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2024/federal-data-reading-pleasure-all-signs-show-slump
Thats the problem I see...Across the board, people dont think and educate themselves. They are consuming bite sized memes an d pieces of content to form opinions. It's sad.
It is definitely a sign of the times. Once upon a time there was a retail chain called Lifeway that sold bibles and christian books. They closed all of their brick and mortar stores in 2019. Here is an article about why they closed their stores:
https://news.lifeway.com/lifewaystoresfaq/#:~:text=While%20sales%20at%20some%20stores,single%20store%20would%20be%20profitable.
I'm sure Amazon had something to do with it as well. It's much easier to click on a keyboard to order books than it is to physically go into a store.
I really miss Lifeway. I am old enough to remember when it was Baptist Book Stores. So sad that even the Southern Baptist Convention could not sustain its bookstores. Now I mostly order from Thriftbooks. !BBH
Same. I enjoyed walking the aisles and finding something I wouldn't have thought of if I hadn't seen it on a shelf or display. I think that's what I miss most about the book store experience.
You should see the bible that Amazon 'delivered' to my door yesterday...Half it was bent and broke because of their incredible delivery service lol
I had been on the hunt for a family bible and felt that I needed to hold it in my hands before making a commitment. So, I went to a small local book shop and was happy to find one that felt good in my hands that also had big print. Those tiny words in my personal bible were far more effort that my eyes were willing to deal with. This new larger family bible has been most welcome.
I basically sell bibles for a living now. It's unbelievably rewarding :)
@epodcaster! @fiberfrau likes your content! so I just sent 1 BBH to your account on behalf of @fiberfrau. (1/20)
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I think it's excellent news that times are changing and people are prepared to look for alternative sources to find spiritualism and meaning.
For far too long, the current religions have held back humanity, created conflict and war and been upheld by a wealthy and powerful oligarchy who rule by fear and threat.
Perhaps there is hope for the world after all and people are becoming thinkers and not just followers.
A wonderful Christmas and holiday to you and your loved ones :-)
Do a wee bit of research...And you will see which religion / church has caused the majority of it. Spoiler alert, it's not bible believing Christianity.
But find the one that forbid people to read and think for themselves and Pandora's box opens.
Perhaps you may like to do research. From.early Christianity, many books have been banned going right back to the beginnings of Christianity. Even in recent times, in the US, religious fundamentalists force schools to remove books from their libraries which don't follow a Christian narrative. Read up on the Librum Prohibitorum.
As I said, religion has always controlled by threat a d regulation. ALL religions.
Not all, but you are close for sure .
Find the path from apostolic Christianity, then trace the bible from them, all through history to now...You will see what was allowed and what wasn't. Follow the different lines of Scripture to see what was the actual bible and what was added.
And then you start seeing patterns. The same 'power' keeps showing up.
Labelling 'all' religion is the easy way to say it's all bad.
And this is coming from someone who labeled it all as bad for 38 of my 48 years on planet earth. I did my homework. Front to cover :)
Appreciate the debate! It's always fun to talk about it.
I haven't read a book for a long time, I want to start a science one soon.
As long as you are reading!! Big win!
Reading as a whole has been on the decline. What I find interesting was that a study by the National Endowment for the Arts completed that showed the most significant losses in reading were seen among those ages 55 and over! It makes sense in general as we've seen the decline/closing of so many newspapers, book publishers, etc. The older generation of people have turned away from reading sources such as those and moved over to online sources that are less than...reliable :D One can only imagine what the younger generation. Perhaps their rate doesn't show as much decline as they never started!
It's scary man. I have so many conspiracy theories floating in my mind about what happens when all books are digital including the bible. Scary to me.
What if we say that this happens because so many people do not like to read and that’s why you don’t get so many people to come read books?
A lot of people prefer to watch videos than to read