Penna Dexter

GQ — once Gentleman's Quarterly — was launched in 1931 as a magazine of fashion, style, and culture. Men look to it for advice on grooming, gadgets, and apparel. The current version delves into current events and culture. But the magazine has, perhaps, overstepped its mission statement in the April issue with an opinion article from the publication's editors titled "21 Books You Don't Have to Read." Number 12 on the list is the Holy Bible. GQ's editors have a strange way of backing up their condescending assessment. They write, "The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it. 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. It is repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned." That word "foolish" is striking. Micah Rate at Townhall.com points to a — well — a Bible verse, 1 Corinthians 1:18. "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." The Bible is also rated highly by people who have read it and do read it, are shaped by it, inspired by it, convicted by it, comforted by it, and love it. The whole exercise by GQ in labeling the Bible and several classics as 'not worth your time' strikes me as arrogant, and certainly promotes cultural illiteracy. What the editors of GQ may not know is that the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is about Jesus Christ. Evangelist Franklin Graham suggests on Facebook that they read it again because, one day "every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord." Lots of Christians agree with a guy named Brian Houston who tweeted that "the Bible is way more hip than GQ."