All posts tagged: Bible

How the Trump administration uses the Bible : NPR

How the Trump administration uses the Bible : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner prays during a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Feb. 26, 2025, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also bows his head. Pool photo/AP hide caption toggle caption Pool photo/AP As massive immigration enforcement actions were underway in Minnesota this January, the Department of Homeland Security released a video that, at first glance, appeared to resemble a cinematic trailer. Set to the singer Lorde’s haunting cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” the footage unfolds in a sequence of eerie juxtapositions: a helicopter hovering in green night-vision haze, armed agents battering doors and bodies moving with choreographed urgency. Across the screen a quote from the Gospel of Matthew: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Moments later, after more imagery of military-style immigration enforcement actions, the rest of the biblical passage materializes: “for they shall be called the sons of God.” “My first thought was, there is a gun called the Peacemaker,” said Dyron Daughrity, a minister in …

Every Book of the Bible Explained in One Video

Every Book of the Bible Explained in One Video

Published by José Betancourt

Whether we’re reli­gious or not, we can all agree that the Bible isn’t just a book. In fact, it’s at least 66 of them, 39 Old Tes­ta­ment and 27 in the New, and that’s just in the Protes­tant tra­di­tion. Even if you’ve nev­er read a sin­gle page of the Bible, you may well have a decent idea of what quite a few of those books con­tain: the sto­ries of Adam, Eve, Noah, and the cre­ation in Gen­e­sis; the plagues and Moses part­ing the Red Sea in Exo­dus; the var­i­ous depic­tions of Jesus in the Gospels that define his pop­u­lar image; the apoc­a­lyp­tic grotes­queries of Rev­e­la­tion. That’s even like­li­er to be true if you watch Hochela­ga, the YouTube chan­nel that just came out with a new video explain­ing all those sto­ries and every­thing in between. The result is long, to be sure, but not as long as you might expect: Hochela­ga cre­ator Tom­mie Trelawny man­ages to cov­er the 66 books of the Bible in two hours, the length of an ordi­nary fea­ture film. For visu­als, he …

Ban the Bible? What is in our school libraries? – OpentheWord.org

Ban the Bible? What is in our school libraries? – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

Credit: Aaron Burden, unsplash.com Have you heard the news, at least in the U.S.? A few districts have banned the Bible from public schools. Seriously? So, does that make you angry? In the state of Texas, there was an argument because the Christian Bible was banned, while the holy books from other religions were not restricted. The public argument was mostly about the Islamic Koran, which was still available to students. Imagine the outrage! I am writing as a Christian, and I know it is easy for a believer like me to be outraged and emotional. School boards and other levels of government are supposed to be elected and accountable. I think we should avoid a fight between the religions of Christianity and Islam. There are holy books, in other religions, and they were probably unrestricted too. For example, there are books that are considered sacred, for Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs, to name only a few. Probably those books were also not banned. If you are interested, here is one video news clip about one …

New era for EEM as global Bible demand surges

New era for EEM as global Bible demand surges

Published by Sam Flores

FORT WORTH, Tex. — EEM, one of the world’s largest Bible distribution ministries, has announced a major expansion of its leadership team following years of unprecedented growth. Dirk Smith was named President of EEM USA after previously serving as Vice President, and Bartosz Rybinski was appointed Executive Director of EEM Eurasia following a board meeting in Dallas this week.  Over the past decade, EEM has grown from distributing over 400,000 Bibles and other resources per year to more than two million, reaching 37 countries in 34 languages, free to all. The changes come following growing demand for Scripture in some of the world’s most restricted regions, including Iran, where EEM recently spoke of a potential “historic opportunity” to place Bibles into the hands of millions if access to Scripture expands. “Our goal has always been seeing lives transformed through the message of Jesus,” said Smith following his appointment. “I’m deeply honored by the trust placed in me and humbled to help lead a ministry that has spent decades putting God’s Word into the hands of people …

The Cherokee Bible, one of the language’s first books, is a window between worldviews

The Cherokee Bible, one of the language’s first books, is a window between worldviews

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — If you wanted to learn the Cherokee language in the 1990s, there weren’t many written resources: three dissertations from the 1970s and ’80s, one textbook and a handful of college classes in North Carolina and Oklahoma. Even on most Cherokee land, it was unusual to see street or building signs in this endangered Indigenous language. There are nearly 500,000 enrolled members in the three federally recognized Cherokee Tribes: the Cherokee Nation and United Keetoowah Band, both based in Oklahoma, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, based in North Carolina. Only about 2,000 of those members speak Cherokee as a first language. But over the past few decades, opportunities for learners of all ages have exploded. One of the authors of this article, Thomas Belt – a first-language speaker from Oklahoma – has been honored to play a role in that resurgence, working as a teacher, curriculum developer and language consultant. Today there is bilingual signage throughout the Eastern Cherokee reservation, in the Cherokee Nation capital of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and on tribal …

Can we really trust the Bible? – OpentheWord.org

Can we really trust the Bible? – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

Image shows Goliath being hit with a baseball size rock and falling backwards. OK, here is a lesson in Archaeology: What we call “ancient civilization” is also known as the “bronze age.” So, why does that matter? If you read old stories in the Bible, you are reading about ancient civilizations. Specifically, the ancient people, including the Hebrew ancestors of the Jewish people, were examples of Bronze Age technology and culture. If the topic interests you, here is more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age I will explain more about that soon, but first, we have a problem: The Bible has critics, and often, its stories are labelled as made-up, fictional moral lessons. There are many people, often educated scholars, who do not believe that the Bible is historically accurate. If we follow this logic, there is no reason to believe what the Bible tells us.  If those are just old stories, invented long after they were supposed to happen, or in other words, if the Bible is a collection of fictional tales, we should believe something more modern. …

Texas Bible reading proposal reignites century-old church-state battle

Texas Bible reading proposal reignites century-old church-state battle

Published by Sam Flores

In 2023, Texas passed a law aimed at improving K-12 students’ reading. In part, it called for a required reading list to spell out “at least one literary work to be taught in each grade level.” An initial list named about 300 texts – many of them from the Bible. The Texas State Board of Education then cut the list by 100 readings but still included more than a dozen biblical texts. Debate over the Bible’s place in classrooms, if any, has erupted since the list was published. At the board’s April 10, 2026, meeting, all nine Republican members preliminarily approved the materials, while the five Democrats rejected the list. The board plans to take a final vote in June. Critics argue that mandatory Bible readings in public schools would violate the religion clauses in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. American courts have considered similar questions for 150 years – with the answer often depending on a lesson’s purpose. Courts, Bible and schools The first reported case on the Bible in U.S. schools was in 1872, when the Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed …

We Goofed | Jo Livingstone

We Goofed | Jo Livingstone

Published by José Betancourt

Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New Haven, Connecticut, is a temple. Although the Beinecke is cuboid it has the atmosphere of a pyramid, flanked in faintly translucent marble slabs that suck light into the building and radiate it outward at the same time. A new literary exhibition, “‘Beauties of My Style’: Errata and the Printed Mistake,” is not at the Beinecke; it is ninety feet away in the Hanke Gallery of the Sterling Memorial Library. This other Yale library is hideous in every way that the Beinecke shines. “Gothic revival” is the generous term. In a scathing 1930 critique later published in The Nation, a Yale undergraduate, William Harlan Hale, condemned SML’s combination of ecclesiastical decor and godless floorplan as a “cathedral orgy.” “How can students be educated to artistic appreciation,” he wondered, “under the eaves of an architecture that puts water tanks into church towers, and lavatories into oriels?” Past SML’s narthex, in a gloomy, wood-paneled corner of its nave, is a small, sarcastic show. It celebrates a loaded little …

Russell Brand mocked over ‘painful’ Piers Morgan interview as he struggles to find Bible passage

Russell Brand mocked over ‘painful’ Piers Morgan interview as he struggles to find Bible passage

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Russell Brand’s controversial appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored has been widely ridiculed online after the former comedian spent over 90 seconds attempting and failing to find a Bible passage he read in court. Brand, 50, will face trial later this year over allegations of rape and sexual assault made against him by six women. He denies all the charges, which date from 1999 to 2009. While appearing on Morgan’s YouTube show on Friday (24 April), Brand – who became a right-wing podcaster in 2021 and a Christian last year – was asked about taking a Bible into his court hearing in February. The religious text was confiscated by the dock officer after he began reading it in Southwark Crown Court. Piers Morgan awkwardly looks at the camera as Russell Brand struggles to find a Bible passage (Piers Morgan: Uncensored) “Can I …

Here’s why the Bible passage Trump read aloud is so potent and polarizing

Here’s why the Bible passage Trump read aloud is so potent and polarizing

Published by Sam Flores

The scriptural passage that President Donald Trump read Tuesday evening in a livestreamed Bible-reading marathon dates back to the depiction of an ancient event — but it’s one that carries a highly charged significance in the current religious and political climate. It has long been quoted and promoted by those who believe America was founded as a Christian nation and should be one. It’s from the seventh chapter of 2 Chronicles, a book in the Hebrew (Old Testament) portion of the Bible. The 14th verse — the one most often quoted — says: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Trump is among hundreds who are taking turns reading the entire Bible aloud over the course of a week. Most of the readings are taking place at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, though Trump’s is coming by video from the …