As some of you may or may not know, Pennsylvania
this year actually passed a bill that declared 2012: the Year of the Bible. I
have no idea what that means, seems to me, 2012's year after the persecution and
death of Jesus is a rather ambiguous point to set something as important as “the
year” of the Bible, but this state and country “continues to face great tests
and challenges” according to the author of the bill, Rep Rick Saccone (R). Thus
it was said… 2012: The year of the Bible. It was also a total whitewash in support as the bill passed by a whopping 193-0 vote in the
state assembly too! And who said there was no longer any bi-partisanship?
Well, if you were like me, you didn’t pay anymore attention
to this piece of news then did the 193 people who glossed over the five-billion dollar
state deficit did. Obviously, within the first few weeks of the new year, this crucial piece of
legislation had to go through. I mean, what would we have done without our state rep's branding the Bible as the book of the year? Funny, 193 elected officials sitting around declaring 2012:
the Year of the Bible, while authorizing the purchasing of a 100 million dollar building in Harrisburg even as the state is drowning in again, 5 Billion dollars of red ink this year. I have no idea why government is so ineffective?
Now, what gets me, is
that here you have 2012 being passed into law as the Year of the Bible. And
this isn’t a partisan issue, again, 193 elected officials for it, none against
it. So you have all this overwhelming support and an organization, who opposed
the bill decided to put up a quote from the Bible entitled: “Slaves, obey your
masters." Biblically speaking, its accurate… but yet you have that
organization chastised by some of the 193 for it? Seems, kind of strange, I thought
2012 was: the Year of the Bible?
And that’s where the humor comes in. It is the Year of the Bible,
its just not part of the Bible… the 193 like. Typical really…but hypocritical
and hilarious at the same time? You betcha’.
State Rep. Ronald G. Waters, chairman of the Pennsylvania
Legislative Black Caucus wrote a letter condemning the billboard company (Lamar) for
putting up the message from the Bible with an African man in bondage. Mr Waters
went on to say "This image and mere reminder of slavery are offensive to
minority citizens in the city of Harrisburg”.
Fair enough, but is the billboard not truthful?
Were black folks not slaves at one point here in this
nation? Obviously, the Bible was talking about the plight of Jews and Jewish law, but the word "slavery" here in this nation, does not make one think of slaves from 3k years ago Because we have a rather recent and dubious history with the word here. Does the Bible have a verse that commands slaves to “Obey your masters?
If this is truly the: Year of the Bible, I suppose we ought to consider actually
celebrating all of it, not just the parts that we don’t like or choose to ignore. After all, its not Year of the Bible chapters that aren't offensive, is it? Although, that would be the logical thing to do, in this context, logic isn’t useful when discussing the book of the year.
Maybe, just maybe, Mr Waters ought to consider the minority
of people who didn’t want 2012 to be the Year of the Bible and used a billboard
to demonstrate that. He had no problem passing this bill, which clearly would/could
be found to be offensive by another type of minority as well. And therein lies the
problem.
Mr Waters does not seem to care about the minority offended by
this bill. However, he does care for the minority (his minority) that might be offended for displaying our history and quoting
the book…that has been passed into law (by his own vote) as the: Book of the Year? There is a lesson to be learned from this and its one most people don't do enough of. That is, thinking for oneself. From political parties,
caucuses inside those political parties, hate groups, religions etc etc… collectivism
is a dangerous ideal that relies on double standards, ignorance and division. Don't be a slave to it.
Think for yourself and question authority – Timothy Leary
