YOU'VE READ IT, RIGHT?

A recent post on social media asked for thumb's up applause for making the statement that the "U.S. Constitution is ___________"(An expletive I won't write.) and "needs to be revised." I thought one response to the post poignantly precise: "You've read it, right?" Often, I've wanted to ask critics of the Bible that: "You've read it, right?" I have heard folks from news commentators, talk show hosts, college students, university professors, politicians make derogatory, demeaning, doubtful, dismissive claims about the Bible. Their claims are often so outrageously erroneous that it cannot be they have actually read the Bible. They may have cherry picked some phrases out of context, but they have never really read the Bible to understand it. People make outlandish charges and criticisms about so many things. To make such rash judgment on the Bible or other things, as did the post on the constitution, presupposes some things: The maker of the judgment has knowledge and understanding of which he criticizes. Honest criticism has been qualified by an effort to absorb, understand, and process what is being maligned. "You've read it, right?" The maker of the judgment is in a position qualifying him to make it. The men who drafted the constitution, primarily James Madison, and, more accurately, the men who contributed to the ideas embodied in the Constitution knew what living in tyranny was all about. They made great sacrifices and paid a great price to arrive at a place where they could actually have a country and adopt a constitution. Beyond that, these were men who were real scholars, greatly knowledgeable of their times, of history, of philosophy, and of theology. Their work should be understood before judged. The maker of the judgment is superior to those who crafted what is criticized or has an alternative that is superior to it. Those who sit in judgment of the Bible should realize that the Bible is actually sitting in judgment of them. There is the story of two men standing on the sidewalk looking into a taxidermist's shop at an owl in the window. They harshly castigated the appearance of the owl and how poorly the taxidermist had stuffed it to make it look so badly. After several minutes of their arrogant appraisal, the owl turned its head and blinked its eyes. One better watch criticizing the Bible as a dead book written by dead men. It is alive. It is really doing the critiquing. One would discover that if he would read it. By the way, You've read it, right?