I just read this morning a brief notice that an Illinois Corrections Department uses a Bible-based job skills program to help released inmates find and maintain jobs. It’s so successful that they’re expanding it. Hey, I’m happy for them — sounds like a great goal, and kudos for achieving it! But I’m confused. What exactly IS a “Bible-based job skills program”? Anyone know? Surely it’s not to imitate biblical jobs. It’s tough for me to imagine the practicality of, say, shepherding in Chicago or officiating as a priest in the style of Leviticus. Fishing, maybe, carpentry, too; but  winnowing grain, or prostitution? er, nevermind. And how, exactly does an arm of the judicial branch of the US government justify the application of a distinctly religious set of ideas? Clarification is welcome!

I don’t know Chris Querry, but I’d sure like to meet him. I’m delighted to read that (despite his academic training?), he appreciated Bible Babel as a book appropriate for lay and religious audiences, teachers and students, alike. Anyway, Chris, wherever and whoever you are, thanks for the great review! For the rest of you, do check out MyShelf.com for a fresh look at new books… or to do a bit of online gambling,… in German, if you like. Really.

It seems that among the least religious are people in European countries that have a religious affiliation. If you’re Swedish, you’re Lutheran… in word, anyway. Last night, I watched the film version of Girl with a Dragon Tattoo. Intense. I’ve heard quite a bit about it, read more, but I don’t remember anyone mentioning that a key clue to unravelling the mystery was the biblical book of Leviticus, the”third book of Moses,” as it’s identified in the story. I’m not sure if Stieg Larsson had real antipathy for the Bible or if it just seemed to work for his narrative purposes, but the references to passages in Leviticus are  far from positive. They show instead how the cruel and twisted brains of sadist murderers could find in those texts justification or at least a map for their horrorifying acts. There’s a lot in Leviticus that I simply can’t get on board with (see the upcoming Oct. 3 issue of The Christian Century for my justification for rejecting certain biblical texts), but did you know that it’s in Leviticus that you can find the command to “love your neighbor as yourself”? Yup, Leviticus 19:18. Now that is NOT a sentiment the abusers in GWDT adopted. skipped right on over that pesky text.

I didn’t know that the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Minneapolis Science Museum would include examples from and description of the gorgeous new illuminated St. John’s Bible, about which I blogged some months ago. Surprise: the script on samples of real Dead Sea Scrolls is teeny-tiny; and the St. John’s Bible is great big. Nothing like seeing things for real to get perspective~

Archaeologists recently discovered a temple, with two great pillars, in what was once the Philistine city of Gath. And they discovered evidence of a huge earthquake. One of the Bible’s most dramatic stories tells about the not always admirable but surely impressive Samson who, duped by his lover Delilah, loses the secret to his power (his hair) to the enemy Philistines. After a humiliating stint as their blinded prisoner, Sampson’s final tour de force is the dramatic destruction of the Philistine temple. Having regained his strength, he breaks its massive pillars to bring the temple down on the heads of his enemies. Some will likely determine that this find corroborates the biblical story. Others, reading less literally, may appreciate how architecture and natural events from biblical times influenced how the stories were told.

And tomorrow, a TV interview for KARE-11… all in Minneapolis. I’m visiting MN during one of the year’s most beautiful times in the “land of 10,000 lakes.” Believe it or not, this place — so far from the desert wilderness of Israel is hosting an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This afternoon, my whole Minnesota family will check it out. My St. Paul sister Deb, who lined up tickets to the show, asked if I’d seen them before. “Yes,” I said, ”but years ago.” “Well, they’re older now!” she quipped. My Minneapolis sister Linnea brought Bible Babel to the attention of the museum, which has been selling copies to supplement the exhibit. How different today’s modern books are from those ancient scrolls, dating to a few centuries straddling the year zero. Enormously important for our understanding of the Bible’s development, mysteries remain. One, who wrote the scrolls? has been the subject of considerable debate among Bible scholars and archaeologists. The collection of discovered fragments includes texts identical to what’s in the Bible, others show variations in what became biblical, some share ideas and imagery with biblical texts but are not otherwise “biblical,” and still other scrolls have in common with biblical texts only the Judaism(s) of the communities that passed such texts along. Most people have assumed that the texts were written (and hidden) by a break-away, ascetic sect of Jews called the Essenes. But recent evidence suggests that they may actually represent the collections of a number of Jewish groups, some of whom fled Jerusalem when the Romans attacked in 70 C.E. (A.D.) and deposited their precious scrolls in the dry caves around the Dead Sea.  But time to go!

Word has it that the Good Word is jumping on the vampire bus. For all sorts of reasons, it’s not as great a leap as you might think — more on that later… Meanwhile, here’s the scoop: Will Smith as the lead in The Legends of Cain a re-telling of Genesis’ story of the first kids, the first brothers, and the first murder in which Cain is a vampire.  That’s all I know so far. Do let me know if you learn more.~ … (later) Thanks to Jospeh Laycock, a doctoral candidate at Boston University, for his essay in Religion Dispatches on the topic. Really interesting. Check it out.

        I attended a funeral recently — “untimely,” one might say, because the man who died did so at his own hand. There was so much about it that defied expectation, defied logic. There’s the suicide itself, of course, an act that makes sense only to the person killed, if at all. But there was more about this funeral that messed with my head… and heart, though I’d never even met the man. C. was a physician who specialized in medical ethics and the work of alleviating end-of-life-suffering without assisted suicide. So, there’s that. Plus, one of the readings struck me as particularly odd.

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Ok, there are probably a lot of problems with angels, but consider this: If an angel steps in to change the course of events to benefit a person, there may be a downside for someone else. What should we do with that? Related, what about the person who simply is not helped by an angel — the devastating car accident, the mugging victim, the addict… But back to Problem #1. I got thinking about this while watching an old episode of “Saving Grace.” Here’s what happened. The angel Earle “saved” Grace from committing drunk driving homicide (you lawyers out there: is this what they call “manslaughter”? anyway…). It sure looked to us (and to her) like she’d killed the guy; but then it turns out she hadn’t. Matter of fact, it appears that the accident never happened. It’s the first time that we meet another of Earle’s charges — a guy on death row, the very same whom Grace thought that she had slaughtered. When Grace talks to him in prison, trying to figure out how all this could have happened, the guy explains that (simultaneous with the accident) he’d dreamed he was in heaven with God, but because of Earle’s actions (“saving” Grace), he had to return to “this hell-hole,” i.e. prison on death row. Hmmmm.

Merrily writing blogs, I had no idea they weren’t posting (20 not published since April til now). Turns out the server for my blog had changed, though everything looked the same to me. Anyway, things should be set/fixed now.

Thanks for reading! I’ve missed your comments and apologize for not seeming to be around pitching light commentary on pop culture Bible references and other such thoughts your way. As always, I love to hear from you but also appreciate simply your eyes on the page.

Hope your summer’s going swimmingly, your soul is satisfied, your imagination on fire, and those you love happy as can be~