Picture get your attention?
Each month, O, The Oprah Magazine asks a different celebrity to share a list of five books that have made a difference in his or her life. The August 2008 issue features a list by Ben Affleck. Included in his list is the Gospel of Matthew. “I chose this Gospel,” he says, “because saying the Bible is one’s favorite book is both too glib and too broad.”
But the celebrities don’t simply provide a list. They have to explain why they chose the books they did. About his choice of the Book of Matthew, Affleck says this:
“I never read the Bible as a child, and I expected that it would be full of fire and brimstone. This notion had only been enforced by hearing one angry, hateful person after another claim to represent all Christians, as they wagged and pounded the Bible. Reading the Bible disabused me of any sense that a hateful person could represent this faith. The book is beautiful and exquisitely written—but it is characterized by one quality that colors every page: love. Beyond giving me a way to question the theological firmament of “tax cuts for the rich” by invoking “the eye of the needle” and “a rich man,” reading the Bible made it harder for me to accept its being used to propagate damaging and small-minded beliefs in the name of Christian values. In the Book of Matthew, those values sound like this: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven . . . Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy . . . Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.’”
Nice observation, huh?
Each month, O, The Oprah Magazine asks a different celebrity to share a list of five books that have made a difference in his or her life. The August 2008 issue features a list by Ben Affleck. Included in his list is the Gospel of Matthew. “I chose this Gospel,” he says, “because saying the Bible is one’s favorite book is both too glib and too broad.”
But the celebrities don’t simply provide a list. They have to explain why they chose the books they did. About his choice of the Book of Matthew, Affleck says this:
“I never read the Bible as a child, and I expected that it would be full of fire and brimstone. This notion had only been enforced by hearing one angry, hateful person after another claim to represent all Christians, as they wagged and pounded the Bible. Reading the Bible disabused me of any sense that a hateful person could represent this faith. The book is beautiful and exquisitely written—but it is characterized by one quality that colors every page: love. Beyond giving me a way to question the theological firmament of “tax cuts for the rich” by invoking “the eye of the needle” and “a rich man,” reading the Bible made it harder for me to accept its being used to propagate damaging and small-minded beliefs in the name of Christian values. In the Book of Matthew, those values sound like this: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven . . . Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy . . . Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.’”
Nice observation, huh?
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