Scarecrow

Okay, so I wasn't intending to do a little mini-series on Dorothy's three traveling companions. But this morning I woke up with another thought on the struggles of the Christian church in America that could be illustrated with the Scarecrow. And, yes, a Cowardly Lion analogy has also come to mind...but you'll have to wait for that one.

The Scarecrow lacked a brain. Or, at least he thought he did. I won't go down the rabbit trail of how you can think you don't have a brain if you don't have a brain. Anyway, one of my frustrations with the church in America for decades now has been the utter Biblical illiteracy of the people in the seats. In a country with such an immense educational system and a Sunday School system in most denominations that is very well developed, why do we have so many people who are so ignorant when it comes to the Word of God? What has the church done to "teach" people that reading the Bible isn't a matter of life and death?

In my humble opinion we've inadvertently communicated that Biblical knowledge is the bailiwick of the pastors. No need for you to dig deep into scripture because there's someone who's taking care of that as their full time job. It's so ingrained in our culture now that even when pastors, in sheer frustration, beg, plead and cajole their people to read the Bible only a handful actually do. Bible classes are poorly attended and those who do come still aren't really digging into scripture like it was the best meal they'd ever experienced.

I'm convinced that until people become intimately familiar with the Bible itself...not books about the Bible, or study courses, or Christian fiction but the actual Bible...we'll continue to hear the theological equivalent of "if I only had a brain" from those who call themselves Christians.