It's another sunny day in California, and the craziness of Armstrongism continues on, full force, and the Living Church of God did not disappoint! They have a blurb up by Gerald Weston about whether it is proper for ministers to use an iPad or other device as their Bible source while preaching. Real manly ministers use a physical bible that they have color-coded and marked up from years of use. Turning those onion-skin pages is more beneficial than typing in the Bible book or verse you are after. Besides, at least 20 minutes of your sermon can be taken up by flipping through it, trying to find what you're looking for, especially for those ministers who feel the need to quote 500 Bible verses in a sermon. I guess they think it makes the members sitting there on cold metal chairs impressed.
Weston goes on to declare below that there may be "...potential unintended consequences before it is too late to “get the cows back in the barn."
Greetings from Charlotte,
We held an hour-and-a-half online meeting for ministers worldwide on Wednesday. Mr. Rod McNair addressed several procedural subjects for our ministry. Dr. Douglas Winnail addressed what it means to be a “Pastor Emeritus,” whether or not we can use gluten-free bread for Passover, and circumcision. I spoke about how to deal with remote GOTOs and the use of electronic Bibles in preaching.
On that subject, I acknowledged that electronic Bibles are powerful tools we can use in studying the Bible, and there are situations where it may be necessary to use them from the pulpit, such as when one has bad eyesight or is preaching in a congregation with poor lighting. But there are likely to be unintended consequences. Those of us who have studied the Bible for decades have a foundation that we may not fully appreciate when it comes to how the Bible is laid out and fits together. Those cutting their teeth on electronic Bibles most likely do not have the same overview. They may be able to jump back and forth from one translation to another—and this can be a wonderful study tool—but are they building a firm foundation on a recommended translation? Only now, after “the cows are out of the barn,” have we learned the dangers of social media—even from some of the executives behind it. We need to consider potential unintended consequences before it is too late to “get the cows back in the barn.” That is why I have asked our ministry to use a hard-copy Bible from the pulpit except in those cases that present rare and legitimate exceptions.
—Gerald E. Weston