It can be considered and studied in college and public schools as literature, but not cited as an academic yet other religious texts like Koran and Torah,etc can? Why is that?
It depends upon the college instructor, most of whom are atheist and/or secularized agnostics.
It's not just colleges that impugn the legitimacy of Holy Writ. Several major Christian denominations in America have voted upon and accepted a statement that the Bible is
A word of god, deleting previous assertions that the Bible is
THE Word of God. Only a few letters, but it reduces the Bible in the eyes of denominational churches to that of common grocery store tabloids.
I attended a seminary where it was forbidden for any of us to quote the Bible when we wrote required papers on theology or church history.
I was later told that I would not be admitted to holy orders of ministry on one of these churches until or unless I recanted my faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. "
Why can't you understand," I was asked, "
it's just a job."
Today sermons in most churches are simple situation ethics. They do not refer to the Bible except as a supporting argument. Their ethical statements sometimes exceed Biblical context, but without proper references or education the laity do not know they're being led astray.
In one church I heard a guest speaker use Muslim references in his topical sermon (*). The congregation nodded their heads and smiled, not knowing the proverbs and hypothetical situations posed to them were of Islamic origin. I knew because I studied. I volunteered to host a course on some of this, but was denied.
Finally the key to navigating today's atheistic academia is proper education and training in Christian literature, Bible literature and apologetics prior to the university experience. Nobody today is getting that sort of preparation. As a result our Christian young are led to the slaughter by their own parents who sometimes know less about the battle than their kids do.
Do YOU know what pastafarianism is? I asked a high school boy and he knew. His Youth Minister, who was standing there with us, did not. If our leaders don't know what's going on how shall the young be taught?
The problem isn't strictly a college problem. Its the problem of every Christian - young or old. The BIG PROBLEM is that nobody cares. Nobody gives two cents to work the problem. Consequently the new generation is already lost. The older generation never cared in the first place. If they attend a "Bible study" its usually a regurgitated middle school level hodgepodge of religious slogans and buzz words. There is no search for truth and the laity are never taught how to find it.
In the Catholic church the attitude of leaders is that
the Bible isn't a playground for the laity. (A former nun informed me of this attitude.) In Protestant churches the people are too busy with sports tournaments, celebrity mischief and the pressures of everyday life to worry about detailed exhaustive Bible study. The flocks of Christ are not being taught to care.
In the book of Amos, the prophet bemoaned a famine of the Word of God. Today it isn't God, but our own church leaders who've decreed a famine of the Word of God. We are starving and poor and naked and we don't even know it.
We as a nation are lost and will suffer terribly for our neglect.
that's me, hollering from the choir loft...
(*)
There are two basic types of sermon; topical and scriptural.
A topical sermon is preached on any subject and may or may not use passages of scripture to support the main argument or contention of the speaker.
A scriptural sermon is delivered from a chapter or portion of a chapter. The speaker does an exegetical interpretation of each line of scripture as he or she goes along. Such sermons require a lot of time to develop and deliver properly and as a consequence are rare things.
