The Bible is a serious book, but it is not deadly serious. Did I say that too quickly for you to get it? The Bible is a serious book, but it is not deadly serious.

Have you ever thought that we might have been better off if we had never put the printed word of God -- the Bible -- between black covers? Dostoevski, in his novel The Brothers Karamazov, characterize the artificial life of the monastery as "25 men trying to be saints, who sit around looking blankly at each other and eat cabbage." It's that kind of attitude that we have toward the Christian life, and toward the Bible, that are deadly -- and take away from the seriousness of the whole matter.

I grew up on a religion somewhat like that -- deadly serious. All the so-called "saints" seemed very sad; and all the so-called sinners …