The Bible in one hand, a Daily Newspaper in the other

@dookie Said

Long ago I read this Christian theologian (I think it was Karl Barth) saying that we need to "keep our Bibles in one hand and the daily newspaper in the other."

(I suppose if we wish to push interfaith dialogue we could exchange the Bible for any other "Holy" Book, of which our world has many)

I tended to agree with him. Be relevant. Don't allow whatever faith you have to become divorced from currents events, hanging like the grin of the Cheshire Cat, suspended in mid-air without any visible means of support.

Now I'm not so sure. I've tended to fall away a bit from keeping up with the constant daily battering of "events" and "affairs" deemed current. The past week I've virtually turned off the news, barely looked at a newspaper, used the net only for personal interests.

Maybe one aspect of this could be the Hindu notion of our various ages. Later in life you retire to the forest etc etc having done your time in the world of commerce, family, whatever.

I'm 71. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe. Lately, reading of the doings of our current "leadership", I find the best idea is to turn them off.

What do others think?

@dookie Said

Long ago I read this Christian theologian (I think it was Karl Barth) saying that we need to "keep our Bibles in one hand and the daily newspaper in the other."

@nooneinparticular Said

I'd rather have knowledge, no matter how bleak or scary, over a comforting lie.

@chaski Said


So, having a bible in one hand is little more than a prop... one could even say that the bible has become to many (if not most) christians a graven image.

@chaski Said

It seems to me that moat people don't actually read all of the bible

@Jennifer1984 Said



We may only get one shot at this.

@dookie Said

I'm 71. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe. Lately, reading of the doings of our current "leadership", I find the best idea is to turn them off.

What do others think?

@mrmhead Said

Say it ain't so!

@gakINGKONG Said

I give the news three minutes. I need to know who has been assassinated or whatever major thing has happened.

The goal is to live inside out and to make my critics irrelevant.

@dookie Said

Three minutes seems a mite too long to me but I get your drift.

I tend not to bother with goals (the Pure Land way of "no calculation" ). Always home, but the journey goes on.

@dookie Said

Well, you seem to be talking about indisputable events. Knowledge about them I can cope with. But when you add the total incompetent bulls**t surrounding those events dealt out by the powers that be, the attempt to twist the meaning of them by media manipulation, I'm more inclined to pull the curtains or just pull a blanket over my head.