Jen Reads the Bible

Religion and 9/11

It's September 11 - a day that we'll all remember forever.  We all have a story about this day... what we were doing, how we found out, loved ones lost, etc.  And each of these stories sort of fade together into a singular experience.

We were all in it together on that day. We didn't think about how we were different, we thought about all the ways we were the same - the values we shared... what it meant to be an American.

As I start my journey through the Bible, I've been thinking about people use religion as a way to validate themselves... as a way of being part of a group.  It was something I always felt was lacking in my life since I didn't grow up with organized religion.  I wasn't part of any of those groups.  

But, as time went on, I felt the need to be part of those groups less and less.  It just seemed like there was no way to bridge those gaps.  I didn't have that foundational belief in god or allah or buddha or whoever.  And, as I started creating my own values and beliefs outside of religion, the idea of religion made less and less sense.

And it made even less sense on September 11, 2001 as I rushed across the D.C. with no idea what was going on other than that it was really, really bad and scary and the only thing we could all do is run and hope that whatever craziness was happening would somehow stop.

I finally made it back home to Baltimore that night and started to process what had happened to this country... to the only group I ever felt like I belonged to... to America.  And I realized that it was probably too late for me and god.  I couldn't imagine a god who'd let something like that happen and I certainly couldn't pray to a god who let that happen.  So, the only answer, in my mind, was that there wasn't a god.  

I won't say I became an atheist that night, because that isn't true.  It was a long process that didn't have an "aha" moment. Rather, it was sort of a gradual consciousness that the concept of god didn't add up in my head.  Maybe reading the bible will change my mind.  

But, the one thing I did realize that night, was that I was damn proud to be an American.  I was proud to be part of a nation that, for the most part, thinks it's okay for me to think these blasphemous thoughts.  I was proud to be one of the melting pot of misfits that built America on the belief that we were all created equal.  In a way, I solidified my membership in the church of America.

What Bible Are You Reading Anyway?

Thought you might want to know what version of the Bible I'm reading, in case you want to follow along... I'm tackling the "Good News Bible: Catholic Study Edition" for three reasons:

1. It was in my apartment
2. This weekend, my husband, who was once an altar boy, saw me reading the King James version, he laughed and asked, "So, how are you finding that?" "Pretty difficult," I replied (of course my thinking was that ANY edition of the Bible would be incredibly inaccessible, so I soldiered on). Then he told me to try this one, which is considerably easier for me to digest.
3. It's purple, and thus considerably more stylish than the beat up King James version I had that I bought for a class in college and that still has an orange "Used" sticker on the binding.

Sweet! 

I also went ahead and re-read the first two chapters of Genesis to make sure that I had got it right.  All good so far...

What is Jen Reads the Bible?

Well, it's exactly what it sounds like.

I'm here to chronicle my experience reading the Bible for the first time. Okay, that's a slight fib, I read parts of Genesis and Revelations as a kid (especially after the movie The Seventh Sign came out, which my eight-year-old self totally believed was actually happening) and I read some of the Gospels for a Medieval history class I took in college, but I've never read the whole thing and I'm painfully ignorant when it comes to even the most basic stories from the Bible. Noah who? Ark what?

You get the point. Anyway, as an avid reader, I know that I'm missing out on a lot of the subtext in most of the literature that I read by not being familiar with these stories. So, here I am, embarking on a mission to read the entire thing. Chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

I think it will be tough, but I also think it will be worth it. Not only will I be more culturally literate, I'll make less of a fool out of myself when Jeopardy has its Bible categories (my current method of play involves screaming "Deuteronomy!" for each answer, yielding me approximately one correct out of every ten tries. A hint for other ignorant Jeopardy home players: the answer is never "Jesus" which is what I used to yell).