Reclaiming the Bible for Equal Rights

by Michael Jones · 2010-01-25 11:24:00 UTC
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BibleFor those lucky enough to have attended Sunday School as a child, wouldn't it have been a completely different experience if we were allowed to write and draw all over our Bibles? Better yet, as adults, wouldn't it be wonderful to go back with a mighty red pen and make some edits?

That's where the Metropolitan Community Church comes in to play. This ain't your 18th century definition of Protestant Christianity. Nope, the MCC's have made it a point to take those folks so often persecuted by the Bible -- women, LGBT people, people of color, immigrants, just to name a few -- and make them a centerpiece of their religion. Last year we saw the MCC at work with a series of billboards in Texas that took a quote from the Gospel of Matthew and interpreted it to say that "Jesus affirmed a gay couple."

Now, they're hosting an art display in Glasgow that allows viewers to take a crayon, a pen, or a grape-scented magic marker and write on the Bible. You just have to follow one simple set of instructions.

"If you feel you've been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it."

The project, according to the artists behind it, is not about defacing the Bible, but about liberating it from the clutches of people who use it to oppress or condemn. They told the Pink Paper that at the core of this project is a fundamental belief that the Bible should be about affirming humanity, and protecting human rights. That goes for folks of all walks of life, regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or creed.

Talk about religious transformation! Maybe salvation does lie within, so long as all of us maintain editorial control...

Photo credit: hornkl

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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