This week the Sentinel features an item that appeared in The Los Angeles Times highlighting a growing interest in Bible study in the United States. As the article notes, there "appears to be a grass-roots movement among Protestants, Catholics and Jews: adults who were raised on the Bible are finally starting to read it. ..."

The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles, California December 22, 1993
by Mary Rourke

"Hitting the Book"

"In small, grass-roots study groups, adults raised on the Bible are actually reading it"

"A professional storyteller is playing all the parts in a tale as old as the hills.

"She slumps into the character of craggy Naomi, then straightens into dewy-voiced Ruth. Her audience of 25 or so adults is dressed for work. They read along, silently, from the hefty books on their knees, looking as intent as hard-pressed students. Yet this is not a conventional classroom. It's a Monday morning, 7 o'clock Bible study group.

"Today's reading is from the Book of Ruth, an Old Testament story about the faithful friendship of two women. The session ends an hour later, and the conference room at Westwood's St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church clears. Students hustle off to the office: banks, universities, law firms, hospitals. But at the end of the day if you asked them, 'Learn anything new?' they might well recall the lessons of Naomi and Ruth.

"This early morning gathering is part of what appears to be a grass-roots movement among Protestants, Catholics and Jews: adults who were raised on the Bible are finally starting to read it.

"Such meetings are not limited to Southern California. A recent ad in a small-town New England newspaper conveys the same grass-roots spirit: 'Moms offering moms support, Biblical-based discussions on motherhood.'

"'There are tantalizing suggestions that there may be a resurgence of interest in the Bible,' reports George Gallup, director of the Princeton Religion Research Center in New Jersey.

"As of 1990, 21% of Americans were involved in Bible study groups, according to a survey by Gallup. That is up from 19% in 1981 but down from a 26% high in the mid-80s. Still, the current tendency toward meeting independent of church or temple suggests that the official count might not reflect the actual number of people involved.

"Consider: The Gallup numbers go way up when the research centers on small groups .... Among other things, Gallup finds that these groups offer a sense of community, which frequently is missing from daily life.

"Many such groups start small. Four people showed up for that first 7 a.m. Monday session at St. Paul's five years ago. Now the group averages about 35 regulars. The class is taught by Bill Creasy, who is on the faculty of UCLA's writing program. He also leads a Monday evening session that meets at 7 and is four times the size of the morning group.

"Earlier this year, Rabbi David Wolpe started a Bible study group with about 20 people in San Francisco. Now he leads two groups in San Francisco and two more in Los Angeles.

"'There is a deep hunger,' says Wolpe, who is on the faculty at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and leads Bible studies in his spare time.

"'Certainly the times are ripe,' Gallup notes. 'The public has been dissatisfied with most institutions, including organized religion, and may look for direct comfort and inspiration from the Bible.'

"And it's getting easier to relate the Bible's lofty contents to real life. A mounting stack of specialty Bibles fills bookstores .... They aim to attract everyone from rap fans to recovering alcoholics.

"'Publishers are coming out with a proliferation of Bibles for niche markets,' says Rob Stone, a Belleville, Mich., Bible distributor. 'There are more types than ever.'

"Experts and amateurs use the same terms to explain the growing interest in reading the Bible. 'People are searching,' says Michael Iannazzi, editor of religious publishing for Doubleday, New York. 'They are hoping to make a religious connection. The Bible is a place to start.'

"'We see such a decline in our values, and so much violence in our society the further we separate religion from the rest of our lives,' says Tom Barron, a businessman who attends Creasy's sessions.

"[Creasy's] way is to teach the Bible line by line. He figures it will take his Monday evening group five years to finish the entire book. The early risers move even slower.

"'I think it's very important to teach the whole Bible,' he says. 'People duck the difficult parts. If it's the word of God, you have to study the whole thing.'

"As the interest in reading the Bible grows, small group meetings seem integrally connected to it. 'Study of the Bible in this way is meeting a real need in our highly individualistic society,' observes William Dyrness, dean of theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. 'It is interesting about Americans, we have a need to get together and pray.'"

LAMENTATIONS

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

Lamentations 3:40, 41

Copyright, 1993, Los Angeles Times. Reprinted by permission.