I was looking over my
bookshelf last night and I noticed that something wasn't quite right with the
Bible my mother gave me quite a few years ago. We had had a flood in our basement a few years ago, and the majority of the books on the shelf had escaped with very little
damage. All of them except the Bible. The Bible's thin
onionskin pages drank up water like a
sponge, and I had a
hell of a time (excuse the blasphemous pun) keeping it from swelling up and bursting its bindings. The
renovation contractor that the insurance company sent over took all the water damaged books away and performed some kind of
magic with a huge freezer, saving the majority. The Bible returned, a bit wrinkly but all in one piece. At the time.
Cut to today, a year and a bit later. Seems that the thin thin pages didn't completely give up all the
moisture they had absorbed. The bookshelf itself was moved away from the potential
pipe bursting zone and for the large part ignored upstairs. With perfect conditions,
mold took hold.
The
old library smell was my first indication that something was wrong. Opening the back pages, I saw the black water stain-like splotches on the back cover. It was fascinating, in a biology class kind of way. I touched a wispy white fuzzy spot and it disappeared in a smear of black dusty
spores. Having a quick look at the bottom, where the moisture had slowly collected, showed the book had grown black and green with
tiny simple life.
Mold. It was clear the book was ruined. Immediately I felt
guilty, as it was a gift of great importance, and I imagined I could have saved it. It was an unlikely scenario. Accidents happen. Either way, I was now the owner of an unusable copy of the Holy Bible.
What to do?
I'm not the biggest Charlie Churchgoer, as evidenced by my not touching the Bible on the shelf long enough for it to bloom
fungal flowers, but even I hesitate at tossing it in the trash with the eggshells and coffee grounds. It seems
disrespectful, and I don't want to be pissing off any potential judges of my
afterlife by being lazy. I have plenty of more fun
sins to explain away. As everybody knows,
Christianity usually has specific protocols and ceremonies established for events that are seen as spiritually important. It's what they
do. Also, other important symbols, like
national flags, have rules that detail how to properly dispose of worn out copies in a respectful way.
You burn old flags. Book burning, on the other hand, has a bit of a
National Socialist/flames of
Hell thing going for it, so I decided to
skip that option.
Turning to the
Internet, it became clear to me that
Judaism has put some thought into this. When Hebrew scrolls of the
Scripture that contain the written sacred name of God are no longer usable, they are gathered, placed in a coffin and buried in a cemetery with a
liturgy of committal. Wow.
So, what would Jesus' Dudes do (WWJDD)?
Turns out there is no
Christian ceremony or procedure for the disposal of old, worn out Bibles. Go ahead and toss it in the trash, or, as several
padres suggest, recycle it in with the newspapers. Why aren't they worried about the Bible itself? Well, the idea is that in order to be
sacrilegious, you have to cause harm to the
Word of God, not its vessel. While the message of the Bible is considered
holy, the pages, ink, and binding are only a way of recording that message. To dispose of the pages, ink, and binding when they are worn out does not show a lack of respect for the message itself.
A little birdy tells me that Catholic types tend to bury their Bibles and
used religious memorabilia, if they have been blessed by a priest.
Pretty tricky huh? Those
priest guys have an answer for everything.