EMILY - A LITTLE BIBLE STUDY WOULDN'T HURT! (extra entry)

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (I Corinthians 13:11)

President Obama briefly referred to that verse (admittedly out of context) during today’s Inaugural address. Tonight on “Greater Boston” on Boston’s WGBH channel 2, the show’s host Emily Rooney stated (almost in an annoyed tone) that President Obama had said the Scripture speaks about “childish things”, and then Rooney added, “I never heard of anything about childish things in the Scripture.”

Commentator Callie Crossley quickly corrected her, mentioning the above verse.

Again, sounding somewhere between bored, sarcastic, and annoyed, Emily Rooney said, “Well I’m not a scholar of Scripture.”

AMEN, Emily Rooney. You’re not.

I like “Greater Boston:” and I generally like Emily Rooney. I agreed with her comment on tonight’s “Greater Boston” that the botched Oath of Office today was Chief Justice Roberts’ fault and NOT Barack Obama’s. But her comment about not knowing Scripture, and almost making it seem inappropriate that President Obama cited Scripture during his address REALLY OFFENDED ME.

(Note: I sent an e-mail to “Greater Boston” about this. Emily Rooney has never written me a reply to any of my e-mails - I’ve sent 3 or 4 others over the past 5 years, but perhaps this time I will hear from her.)

I’ve written on the blog before that I’ve noticed that many times BRILLIANT contestants on “Jeopardy” blow any “Bible” or “Scripture Quotes” or even “Religion” column of questions. We consider ourselves well educated, but we don’t even recognize that above Bible verse that’s recited at 75% of Christian wedding ceremonies. Like it or not, the Bible is a HUGE part of Western European culture and history. You might be AMAZED at how many of our expressions such as “fly in the ointment”, “powers that be” and even our WORD “talent” come DIRECTLY from the Bible.

Reader- if you’ve never studied the Bible, you OUGHT to. If you fear religious indoctrination, check out courses you can audit at local colleges. There are certainly courses such as, “The Bible as Literature” out there, which would be a good starting point. For that matter, go to a good secular bookstore and pick up a Bible and start reading through it. (I strongly recommend reading the New Testament FIRST.) You might be surprised at how much you’d learn and how interesting it would be.

Incidentally, Emily Rooney’s father is 90-year-old Andy Rooney of “60 Minutes”. Andy professes to be an atheist, but he’s very well read and I’m sure he could tell you where in the Bible that Barack Obama Bible reference is found!