GQ magazine puts Bible on list of classic books not worth reading, incurs the wrath of Christians
Well, it appears this group of scribes won’t be greeted very warmly at the Pearly Gates.
GQ magazine, a bible of “grooming” tips, gadget suggestions and style advice, has sparked a social media conflagration by calling the Christian Holy Bible “foolish, repetitive and contradictory” and placing it on a list of “21 Books You Don’t Have to Read.”
“The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it,” novelist Jesse Ball writes in the magazine. “Those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced.”
Instead, Ball recommends reading Agota Kristof's The Notebook calling it “a marvelous tale of two brothers who have to get along when things get rough.”
Also on the GQ list are such classics as The Catcher in the Rye, Lonesome Dove, The Old Man and the Sea, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Lord of the Rings.
In an introduction to the piece, GQ editors attempted justify their choices. "We've been told all our lives that we can only call ourselves well-read once we've read the Great Books. We tried," the editors wrote.
"We realized that not all the Great Books have aged well. Some are racist and some are sexist, but most are just really, really boring.”
Perhaps predictably, the provocative proclamation about the Bible brought instant ire from Christians.
"Even if you don't believe this is an inspired word of God, in the last 50 years 3.9 billion have read the book," Fox News religion contributor Father Jonathan Morris told Fox & Friends on Sunday. Morris also labeled the inclusion as “just foolish and a shame.”
.@fatherjonathan: It’s ‘foolish’ that the editors of GQ Magazine would claim that the bible is one of the most overrated books of all time pic.twitter.com/rY7vhbTWkx
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 22, 2018
And evangelist Franklin Graham, in a post on Facebook, said that the Bible is “sharper than a double-edged sword. There’s nothing more powerful, and there’s nothing more needed by mankind than the Word of God.”
Graham suggested that the GQ editors need to read it again. “The subject of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is Jesus Christ. And one day soon, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.”
On Twitter, a user called Bluestar called GQ “The Most Overrated Magazine Of All Time!” and said the choice was an “epic fail.”
Another poster, who identified himself as Eric Metaxas, also slammed the magazine. “If there is a person on the planet who cares what @GQMagazine has to say about literature, I'd love to meet that person,” said. “And pray for him.”
Meanwhile, Twitter user David D raged that “This Act by GQ is a total disgrace to the Christain (sic) Community.”
“I really don't think I'll be buying anymore GQ Mags,” he proclaimed.
And in perhaps the cruelest jab at the magazine, Tweeter Brian Houston declared that the Bible “is way more hip than GQ.”
GQ did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
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Graham suggested that the GQ editors need to read it again. “The subject of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is Jesus Christ. And one day soon, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.”
Sounds a lot like what a certain lunatic on this site would say.
Gee, now whom might that be? LOL
I may be a godless beotch but I don't remember Jesus being mentioned in Genesis, or Leviticus, among many other Old Testament books.
Once again the best support for atheism is conservative Christianity.
The Bible is the best selling work of historical fiction. It's also the most bloody.
"Meanwhile, Twitter user David D raged that, "This Act by GQ is a total disgrace to the Christain sic Community."
Well. Other than being from a Betsy DeVos education camp that spells ( christian ) incorrectly-----------the only disgrace to the christian community are the Shadow Walking christians that currently infest it.
Besides, did not Trump's Omarosa claim that, "Everyone will bow and kneel to Trump?" So much for that Jesus thing, right?
I'm not impressed by GQ's take on this. Smells like a publicity stunt.
My favorite work of fiction is One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.
My favorite non-fiction would probably have to be Alive by Piers Paul Read, the story of the plane crash in the Andes Mountains where the surviving members of a rugby team tried to survive for 72 days without much food in a surrounding of cold ice and snow. Incredibly moving story.
Not a publicity stunt. The bible has become its own political publicity stunt.
I don't know why people bother with things like this. Some guy has an opinion about the Bible. And?
And in perhaps the cruelest jab at the magazine, Tweeter Brian Houston declared that the Bible “is way more hip than GQ
As a heathen I am surprised that I actually find it more relevant than GQ. But then I'm no gentleman and both are works of fiction.
The bible would be a much better representation of the values Christianity is trying to portray if it removed the Old Testaments. I have read the Old Testaments cover to cover and found it so appalling i didn't even bother to read the New Testaments in its entirety.
The New Testament was invented to replace the Old Testament which was...........cruel, unbelievable, confusing, immoral, strange and even more cruel. If left to stand on its own The Old Testament would have ended up in one of Ben Carson's pyramid grain silos as a door stop.
It's funny. That is pretty much my description for the new testament as well.
Well. At least The new Testament does have 'compassionate lessons' of sorts. And shies away from the 'shellfish, incest and poking out people's eyes' and other weird stuff.
But the Old Testament has sex and violence. The only thing missing is the rock n roll
There are stones. Does that count?
LOL!
But did any of them roll? Oh, wait....
I seriously doubt that this is much of a concern.
For a book that is supposedly the word of God, there sure seem to be a lot of different versions. Looks to me like the HUMANS changed the book to fit their own needs.....Oh wait, that's the whole idea of the bible in the first place.
Which one of the gospels was written by God because they most definitely do not agree? Did God also write Genesis, Acts, the letters of Paul, Romans, Deuteronomy, and Leviticus, among others when he was off his meds because if one person wrote all of them they have more personalities than even Stephen King could imagine?
How did God inspire the writing of the Bible, if they have been edited many times over the past 2000 years? Did god agree to those edits?
Did god attend the Council of Nicea when the basic tenants of Christianity were determined?
Twitter feed maybe?
That makes as much sense as the rest of the bible.
read it, read some history, watch some TV preachers and think; it just does not fit together.
Coincidentally, I seeded something about that just recently.
A lot of people read Fifty Shades of Gray, too.
I still question which one of the many books in the Bible Yahweh is suppose to have written or, inspired.