The Bible Says So: What we get right (and wrong) about scripture's most controversial issues.

So I’m a little wary about discussing this one! I’ve changed my mind three or four times about how to talk about it. Let’s start with the aerial view: I’d give it four out of five stars and recommend that everyone who calls themselves a Christian pick up a copy. In the book, Bible scholar Dan McClellan turns an academic lens on some of the scriptures and beliefs that have been used to weaponize the Bible and attack marginalized communities. 

McClellan is one of my favorite social media content creators, and I preordered this book as soon as he announced it. He works very hard, and mostly successfully, to take the deep academic discussion around the most influential book in human history and “dumb” it down into language more accessible to a casual audience. Oh, and he also manages to throw in Doctor Who and Metallica references, so of course, I love him for that!

His bottom line is that a lot of people, especially those in the evangelical fundamentalist community, have no idea what they are talking about and constantly misquote and misinterpret scripture to attack others while propping up misogynistic, homophobic white supremacy. He talks a lot about the MANY translations that have happened over the years, often for political reasons, and discusses what these stories would have meant to the people who originally wrote and heard them.

To be honest, I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, but I enjoyed this one even while it made me angry chapter by chapter. It made me mad not because it challenged what I was taught as a young person, but because we still give so much weight in our world to an Iron Age and Roman Empire set of manuscripts that often contradict themselves, and were reinterpreted to have new meanings sometimes centuries after the original writing.

While I’m ranting to the zero people who have read this far, let me finish by saying I don’t think I know many genuine Christians. Instead of followers of Christ and his message, I see a lot of people who want to worship the vengeful god of the Old Testament. I’d still oppose it, but I’d be way more impressed if fundies wanted to put The Beatitudes on school walls instead of the Ten Commandments. Here endeth the rant.