"I pledge allegiance to The Bible,...

...God's Holy Word. I will make it a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and hide it's words in my heart, that I might not sin against God!"

Growing up in The Bible Belt in a traditional Southern Baptist Church, this is a pledge that I recited as a little kid at summer "Vacation Bible School." I loved "Vacation Bible School." It always kicked off with a big "Bible School Parade" on the Saturday before VBS started the next Monday. Dozens of station wagons, pickup trucks, and vans filled with kids would drive through the neighborhoods around our little Southern Baptist Church. All us kids would be hanging out of the windows, screaming at the top of our lungs, "Come to Vacation Bible School! Come to Vacation Bible School!"

Then we would walk the neighborhoods putting invitation cards on every door in Waller Subdivision, and Coleman Park. Our reward was a Coke and hot dog party back at the church. It was a lot of fun on a hot southern summer Saturday...and it meant we didn't have to mow grass that day.

Every morning before you went to your individual Bible School class, all the kids would file into the sanctuary of the church. The Pastor would say a prayer. Then, we would pledge allegiance to The United States Flag. Then we would pledge allegiance to The Christian Flag. And finally, we would pledge allegiance to The Bible. Then the Pastor would normally tell us a story about a great American that had overcome struggles in life through faith in Christ, and the comfort of/obedience to the scriptures. Then we'd dismiss to our classes for the day (which was always really fun stuff...art projects, Bible stories, Kool-Aid & cookies, outdoor playing with your friends, Bible stories, little plays & songs, etc.).

And during VBS, Daddy didn't push me and my brother too hard about keeping the grass cut.

My folks were Christians...the REAL kind. I often tell people, "Most kids are born in a hospital...I was born in the church nursery."

The Anne & Don that folks saw on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, every night during "Revival" and "January Bible Study," at Deacons meetings, and church-wide potluck socials...was the same Anne & Don I saw all the rest of the time as I was growing up. They were the REAL DEAL. And they taught me a reverence for The Bible.

You were never to put any other book on top of your Bible. You were never to let anything spill on your Bible. You were never to drop your Bible on the floor, etc.

The Bible that I still read is one that I bought with my own hard-earned money (selling pecans I'd picked up, by the side of the road) for $50. I was about 12 or 13 years old, and $50 was a lot of money. But it was a leather-bound, Thompson Chain Reference Bible...a Cadillac. Well, I'd say that it's held up pretty well over 35 (or so) years. It's all marked up with notes I've written in the margins, and Greek and Hebrew definitions I've researched for particular words.

A little bit of Lamentations is torn out because my now 19-year-old son got hold of it one day when he was about 3 years old. I guess he didn't like all that lamenting stuff, and decided to take matters into his own hands. But all in all, the $50 bucks was a good investment.

I have been a life-long student of The Bible. There have been times in my life that it's pages consumed me...literally.

What brought all of this to mind was an article I read in The UK Times Online. Don't hit this link to the article until you finish reading my valuable commentary. (I mean, you've stayed with me this long, what's another couple of boring minutes?)

Gallery's invitation to deface the Bible brings obscene response

I am just bringing this article to your attention. I don't really want to comment much on it, but you might find it an interesting read. Just a couple of thoughts:

1) I don't know much about this "Metropolitan Church" that is hosting the "art" exhibit. But if this "Metropolitan Church" in Scotland is anything like the "Metropolitan Church" I've heard of here in the US...well... (Okay, I can't write what I'm thinking, because it ain't Christian)

2) One of the most daring, and powerful messages I have ever witnessed in a Christian church was when this old Pentecostal preacher thumbed through his Bible, reading particular passages, then ripping the page out of his Bible and slinging it in the air while shouting "We don't need this in there!"

As he covered a broad range of societal, political, and theological ills, the pages just kept flying! He was doing something that I learned as a child was "forbidden." He was ripping a copy of The Holy Bible to shreds as he illustrated that the church didn't seem to care much about "God's Holy Word" any longer. Did he go over the edge? I didn't think so. The old boy was really hoeing the corn, and speaking TRUTH about hypocritical Pharisees, doctrines of devils, folks wanting their sins called "okay," churches going soft on abortion, etc.

3) I have been a life-long student of The Bible. And there is MUCH that I do not understand. I have pondered, and researched the works of those that see it as pure fantasy...and those that believe it to be completely, totally, infallible. I'm sure that many of you have, too.

And I've come to the same conclusion of (I think) Samuel Johnson. "It is not what I do not understand about The Bible that worries me. It is what I DO understand about it that does."

4) And one more thing. Big KUDOS to the Catholics in Scotland...from the article: A spokesman for the Catholic Church said: “One wonders whether the organisers would have been quite as willing to have the Koran defaced.”