Bibles to be Delivered with 'Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'

[sabra]

Source: E & P / AP

PITTSBURGH A religious group is planning to distribute 250,000 Pittsburgh-themed New Testament Bibles in advertising pouches to be delivered with editions of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper.

A local program of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based International Bible Society called CityReachers Pittsburgh hopes to send the New Testaments to the paper's subscribers in Allegheny County and some border communities on Sept. 7.

The group has delivered custom-designed Bibles to newspaper subscribers in several other cities across the country in an effort to find innovative ways of spreading a Christian message.

So far, the organization has raised just $350,000 of the $625,000 needed to distribute the New Testaments to 250,000 households. It has until May 31 to raise the remaining money to meet a printing deadline.


Read more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003802052

[Ian David]

1. Who thought god would like thousands of bibles being left outside, on the ground? n/t

[Mountainman]

2. Now if some Muslims wanted to put the Koran in the papers what do you think would happen?

I think the same should be done to these bibles! How f..king religiously elitist! I really hate proselytizing!

[timtom]

21. Excellent point.

[The Straight Story]

23. Uh, they would probably take their money and pass them out

And someone here on DU would bitch about it, and be called a bigot or a hater for being all scared of islam.

[earthboundmisfit]

3. $625,000 - or $350,000, for that matter

would buy a lot of food for food banks, ya know?

[Auggie]

6. My thought exactly.

[wtmusic]

12. And ironically

would do a lot more converting.

This isn't so bad. They get recycled and turned into soft drink cups.

[BigDaddy44]

37. How about that $150M or so Obama has collected?

How much food do you think THAT would buy? How about all the advertising other advertisers put into the paper. How much food would that buy?

[earthboundmisfit]

39. I do not disagree, sir -

n/t

[IronLionZion]

43. yup

I'm amazed and disappointed but the amount of money raised and spent by all the candidates. But how about a Democratic president and strong majority in Congress? Think about how much that will do for poverty.

You could also mention the Trillion or more dollars spent on Iraq.

[coriolis]

4. WTF is a Pittsburgh-themed bible? Saul has a flashback in the Liberty tubes?

:eyes:

[livetohike]

5. ROFL

:rofl: First thing I thought of was they substituted "yinz" for thou.

[DebbieCDC]

30. We always pronounced in "yunz"

But I was 60 miles away from Pittsburgh during my childhood, so maybe that accounts for the difference.

OMG, the Liberty Tubes! I haven't thought about them in years!!!

[ladywnch]

38. it is yunz! look it up in the "how to speak Pittsburghease" book!

[Westegg]

60. "Haw yinz dune?" = "How are you guys doing?"...

...I don't need a book to tell me how to speak my native language, thank you.

[ladywnch]

70. jeet? no, jew? = did you eat? no, did you? I speak fluent

Pittsburghease thank you. I was posting for the less educated among us! I may be in Colorado now, but I was born and raised in Aliquippa thank you very much and had chipped ham sammiches all through school.

[Westegg]

71. Ah, chipped ham! Isaly's! I tried to get my wife...

...to appreciate chipped ham when I took her to Pittsburgh (she is a native New Yorker). She couldn't dig it. Her loss. ladywnch, did you ever sit in Three Rivers Stadium and watch the Clark Bar sign light up? One of my fondest memories of childhood. That, and watching Clemente in right field. And a few thousand others, I guess.

[ladywnch]

76. yes, I do remember the Clark sign but watching Clemente was da bomb!

my brother was very sick as a kid and one of our neighbors went to a Pirates game and not only got Clemente's autograph but when he told Roberto about my brother Clemente gave him his batting helmet to give to my brother! He kept that thing for years. I dont know what happened to it now. :-(

I remember watching drive-in movies at ABC theatre in Ambridge and when the movie was dull (for a kid) my brother and I would eagerly await the slag dumps down the hillside. It was so cool that glowing liquid orange!!!! .....Isaly's ice cream!hmmmmmm the best! I smile everytime I see a Klondike Bar commercial. Yeah, so many memories. Bob Prince the ONLY voice of the Pirates. Myron Cope (RIP)...... I have to stop now.....getting home sick.

Good to meet you! :-)

[Westegg]

96. Good to meet you too! Hey, remember this?...

...Bob Prince, at the end of a Pirates' win: "We had 'em aaallll the way." What a great philosophical statement! I didn't appreciate it as a kid. I do now.

Really nice story about your brother and Roberto. Thanks for sharing it.

[ladywnch]

99. I had fogotten that statement until now. He was such a wonderful

man and they treated him like crap. I was glad they brought him back long enough to let him go out doing what he loved. Lanny Faterri (sp?) was such a pale weak replacement ...... :rant: sorry, I don't know why that has always been such a sore subject for me....I was just a kid then.

Ahhhh, good time back then. :-)

[OnionPatch]

102. Lol, I remember that!

But we called it "chipped-chopped ham" in my little town 40 miles from Pittsburgh.

[juno jones]

33. OMIGOD! YINZ!

I had a friend from PA who used that constantly!

Thanks for the memories and a hearty :rofl: !

[livetohike]

54. My husband was born and raised on the West End of Pgh.

He says "yinz" once in a while :-).

[annabanana]

35. sigh.. They will probably end up like the phone books that are delivered

every once in a while.

[FSogol]

11. Jesus turns wine into Iron City Beer.

;-)

[livetohike]

13. Good one!

:toast: Sermon on Flagstaff Hill :-)

[TommyO]

20. Instead of loaves and fishes

it's Primanti Brothers and pierogies!

[jmowreader]

51. That's in the Old Testament, not the New

Giving someone Iron City Beer falls under the heading of "smiting, methods of."

[dropkickpa]

15. Yinz can't kill nobody

Yinz should be nice 'n at.
Yinz'll haveta remember, Sunday is the time ta cheer the Stillers on, no work allowed!
Don't be nebby

etc etc

[Sheets of Easter]

53. Blessed are the poor in spir't,

'cause they don't go dahn Donnie Iris concert lookin' like a jagoff.

[Westegg]

64. Funny! You got it.

[yellowcanine]

18. Instead of the Jordan, Jesus gets baptised in the Monongahela River.

[Roland99]

26. Wonder if Jesus would be a Penguins fan?

If so, you'd think there would have been some divine intervention on that bad no-goal call last night!

[KamaAina]

77. I hear Sidney Crosby walks on water

then again, so do Malone, Dupuis, Fleury and the rest of the Pens.

There are rumors there may actually be other hockey teams besides the Pens, possibly in Detroit, but these remain unsubstantiated. :-)

[Sabriel]

34. It's just like those city-themed Monopoly games

Here's an excerpt from it:

When Jesus came to the region of Squirrel Hill, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say Luke Ravenstahl; others say Tonya Payne; and still others, Trent Reznor or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Charles Grodin answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Matthew 16:13-16

[PittPoliSci]

89. lol

[Sheets of Easter]

52. cole slaw and french fries on the loaves and fishes.

[livetohike]

55. I've been laughing all afternoon at this thread so thanks

for another good one :-).

[Sheets of Easter]

61. The Sermon on the Mount Washington...

And who could forget how Jesus was tempted by Satan while fasting for 40 days in Cleveland...

[livetohike]

67. Okay now I'm laughing so hard I'm crying

:toast:

[Petrushka]

59. Water changed into IC Light? (eom)

[MountainLaurel]

66. Pierogies instead of manna? n/t

[Bluebear]

86. Moses parts the Monongahela.

[madmom]

7. I would cancel my subscription, and tell them why!

[BigDaddy44]

36. Why?

Newspapers are filled with advertising. Advertisements to try to get you to buy things. Soap. Food. Cars. Houses. You name it. Sometimes they even provide product samples (haven't you gotten the little detergent packets included in the Sunday paper?)

So as far as I see it, this is another form of advertising. As long as the advertiser is willing to pay, I don't care if they include a bible, a koran, a torah, or "the cat in the hat" for all I care. Whats the big deal?

[madmom]

40. If I want to hear about god I'll go to church, I don't. As far as I'm concerned it's a waste of

paper, my time and resources. I don't like people sticking things under my wipers either, it's just a thing I have about people trying to "push" their product at me.

[BigDaddy44]

48. Its not a waste of your resources

Its a waste of someone elses. Besides, there are already advertisements for churches in newspapers.

You have a thing about people trying to "push" their product at you?? Then you should have cancelled your subscription long ago. Have you noticed how many people are already pushing their product on any page you open in a newspaper?

[madmom]

56. I didn't mean to imply ONLY my resources but all, and I did cancel my subscription

years ago, only buy it when it has something of interest to me.

[stratomagi]

8. And I was just wondering how to balance that coffee table. Thanks post gazette! nt

[katmondoo]

9. I would send mine back to the newspaper

everyone should

[Gormy Cuss]

10. God hates advertising.

Wait until Phelps finds out.

[phantom power]

14. Good preface to my campaign to distribute copies of Demon Haunted World...

with the Arizona Republic. I'm sure nobody will mind.

[kestrel91316]

16. Dear journalist: If it's only a New Testament, please don't refer to it as a "bible".

Call it what it is: a "New Testament".

BTW, this is disgusting. How many hungry people are there in Pittsburgh, and they are worried about people not having heard about Jesus? Unless people live in a cave in Outer Mongolia, they've HEARD about Jesus already..............

[On the Road]

31. A New Testament Make More Sense

the whole Bible is four times and big and kind of hard to fit into a Sunday paper.

[wallwriter]

17. They only want converts over 60 years old? n/t

[cloudbase]

19. I'll pray

that somebody sends me some Primanti Bros. sammiches.

[pegleg]

22. No bigotry on DU. Yeah, right .

It's their money. Let them do as they want.

[old mark]

25. I guess the Steelers would win every Superbowl...

....What the hell would they put in the bible to make it specific to Pittsburg?
Why would anyone do that?

What would they do for Philly?

Los Angeles?

San Francisco?

These people are so crazy they are really scarey.


mark

[On the Road]

32. For Anyone Who Doubts That the Mood on DU

is stronly anti-Christian, look no further. This is simply a free New Testament. That is about the most neutral kind of publicity possible. I have no more problem with that than the Book of Mormon in the Marriott hotel rooms.

[dropkickpa]

45. I do.

I certainly don't want one, because, besides being an atheist and having absolutely no use for the damn thing, it's a shameful waste of resources and insulting. The trees downed for a quarter million bibles, the processing to make the paper, the processing to make the inks, the gas wasted shipping, the extra hassle and work to the delivery drivers who are NOT well paid, and the fact that many/most of them are going straight into the trash. I have a no preaching or soliciting sign on my door, and, as I respect others right to believe in whatever they want, I also demand that same respect, most especially in my own home.

This isn't about "persecuting the poor widdle kwistchins", it's about freedom of and FROM religion, and respecting peoples beliefs or lack thereof. Believe what you want, but don't expect people to agree with you OR to take kindly to having those beliefs shoved down their throats. I grew up (starting at about age 5) having people tell me I'm going to hell, I'm a horrible person, I'm evil and hateful, simply because I'm an atheist. You can be damned sure I'm pissed that, as an adult, I'm being subjected to this crap as a piggyback on a product and service I pay for. They want everyone to get a bible, they can damn well deliver them door to door by themselves. What do you want to bet they'd end up with a WHOLE LOT of extras if people had the ability to make a choice on whether or not to accept them, hmmm?

[pegleg]

46. If you expect your rights to be protected and respected, you need to accept that others

have rights, also. It's not a matter of freedom from religion. It's a matter of freedom of religion and of free speech. If you you don't like it, take out an ad advertising atheism or secular humanism or Islam or anything else.

[dropkickpa]

47. Keep it out of my home and off my property

I don't need to take an ad out, I'm not trying to shove anything down anyone's throat. I don't run around chasing down christians, accosting them on the streets to preach my "message". I don't send things to their homes, invading their privacy. I let them be. All I ask is the same level of courtesy, which you (and they) seem to have totally missed.

[pegleg]

49. Uh? I respect your beliefs, but you're coming into my residence right now

and I have the freedom to not listen to you or to not read DU if I so choose. So do you. It's the same for reading the newspaper. That's a point you seem to miss. I do happen to think they are wasting their money, but hey, I hate all the ads that fall out of my paper too but if i don't like them I don't have to buy the paper. It is as simple as that. This isn't China.

[Critters2]

83. Exactly. I don't see this as any more irritating than the damn coupons for things I don't

want or need. And I'd probably do with this what I do with them...put 'em in the recycling bin.

How hard is that?

[dropkickpa]

92. Am I wasting resources by posting?

Don't think so. Even on the thin lightweight paper bibles are typically printed on, a quarter of a million bibles is a LOT of resources that could be put to better use, and it can't be easily recycled here in Pittsburgh, as paper recycling is still limited to newspaper only in several areas of the city, and there are many communities in western PA that still do not have recycling programs.

It's not the same thing as ads and coupons at all. The coupon wants me to choose tampax over playtex or extolls the wonders of the flowering tomato tree, the bible is an imposition on my right to be free from religion and a supposition that each of the quarter of a million households they deliver to in Pittsburgh are happy to receive their religious tract, no matter if the recipients are atheist, muslin, jewish, etc. The two just don't compare, no matter how much you want them to. To many people who have been subjected to discrimination and ridicule due to having beliefs that differ from the christian majority, it's a slap in the face, a way of yet again emphasizing the power of the christian right in this country and their total disrespect for anyone who believes differently.

[pegleg]

95. You are using unnecessary electricity by turning on your computer

and you are wasting time here when you could be doing something more constructive like working at an animal shelter or working to raise money to give to a group so they can afford to put an ad in a newspaper. And as far as I'm concerned we are all wasting valuable time when we should be rallying relentlessly against this damned war. It's practically never mentioned any more and yet what it is costing us in lives and money is crippling the country. #4076:


IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 408-08
May 12, 2008


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Cpl. Jessica A. Ellis, 24, of Bend, Ore., died May 11 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when her vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. She was assigned to the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

For more information media may contact the Fort Campbell public affairs office at [phone].

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[onager]

65. OK, then let's put a copy of "Mein Kampf" in every paper!

You wouldn't have a problem with that, right?

Because that's what this whole idiotic campaign is about. It's about pushing an ideology, in other words, simple propagandizing. In this case the propaganda just happens to be supported by the majority of Americans. Or at least the majority of Americans who need an Invisible Friend.

If you you don't like it, take out an ad advertising atheism or secular humanism or Islam or anything else.

I'd love to do that, just for the humor value alone.

I'm sitting here trying to imagine what would happen, if newspapers landed on the doorsteps in any American town with a bonus atheism tract included.

DU alone would provide weeks of fun, with thousands of posts whining about "Fundamentalist Atheists" and the "New Militant Atheism."

[Igel]

68. Here's a tale from when I was a wee lad.

Some publication arrived in our mailbox. I was < 10 years old at the time.

In the publication--maybe a magazine, maybe a newspaper, maybe generic junk mail--was a record. You know, a thin vinyl thing with grooves that, when played with the proper equipment, can be shown to have sound encoded on it. I was curious, never having seen a floppy disc like that before, so I put it on the turntable.

I don't remember which parent it was--could have been either stridently dem mother or my tacitly repub father--but I was chewed out for playing the thing. It was a MLK speech, the "I have a dream" speech. I had no idea what the problem was, who MLK was, or much of anything else. I was one apolitical, if not anti-political, kid.

The disc hit the trash in short order. I wasn't sure what I had done wrong--not knowing who MLK was? Playing the disc that was obviously intended to be played? Not throwing away mail more quickly, unread and unheard?

I don't recall my parents complaining about the people who sent it, however, and nobody wanted to censor them. My parents disliked the message, but both assumed tossing it was their responsibility: They can't stop messages they find offensive from arriving at their doorstep, but they don't have to let them in.

[xioaping]

78. Not even close with that example n/t

[Critters2]

84. I'd put that in the recycling bin, too. nt

[On the Road]

100. You Are Equating the New Testament with Mein Kampf

Seriously.

You do realize that your broad-brush condemnation covers the 'propagandizing' efforts of every leader of every progressive cause, including your personal favorites.

I would actually have more of a problem if the newspaper refused a paid insert on the basis that it was religious.

[On the Road]

57. I'm an Atheist Too

but this isn't a government publication. You get all kinds of commerical inserts and other crap in the Sunday paper, and most of it ends up the garbage. Why is adding a New Testament to the mix being 'subjected' to something?

[spoony]

69. I'm afraid it's less a "mood"

than a permanent and well-worn rut in the minds of many here. Just the word "Bible" in a thread title attracts them like moths.

[old mark]

91. I affirm that everyone may hold any religious belief...

...no matter how laughable it may be.

I treasure your diversity.

mark

[liberal N proud]

24. Just because you put one on my doorstep...

doesn't mean I have to pick it up.

You can't force religion on people regardless of how much these fundamentalist think they can.

[Hobarticus]

27. Howzabout using that money to, I dunno, help the poor?

I know, that sounds like a really radical idea...

:crazy:

[Adsos Letter]

28. I would think this would be covered by the First Amendment...

whose protections we, as Democrats, certainly cherish.

No government entity is bankrolling this, or making reading of those bibles mandatory on pain of some restriction of rights under the law.

Seems like a case of free exercise to me...

[Divernan]

29. Well! Dickie Scaife & the Pgh. Tribune-Review missed out on this moneymaker!

And they needed it, because Scaife has to subsidize his personal rag to the tune of millions a year to keep it going. But since most of his readers are neo-con bornagains already, it sorta makes sense (?!?!?!) to deliver New Testaments to all the PG readers in Squirrel Hill (a liberal, very Jewish section of Pittsburgh).

Trust the volumes will be tastefully bound in Black & Gold, with the Steelers' fall schedule 'nat ere on Page One.

[Westegg]

63. Dick Scaife won't run out of money in his lifetime...

...and in any case, Hillary told him not to do it.

[BadGimp]

41. How much would it cost to pass out copies of the constitution?

And follow it up with a quiz/prize contest to encourage people to actually read the darn thing.

Just thinking out loud.

[darue]

42. a printer's scam n/t

[Parche]

44. Time For A Book Burn

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

:hi:

[Critters2]

82. Progressives are burning books, now?

When did our love for freedom of thought and expression end? And why didn't I get the memo?

[fshrink]

50. Is there really anyone left to convert? Or is it Pimp my Bible?

[Megahurtz]

58. "Pittsburg-Themed" New Testament Bibles???

:wtf:

That's just Looney-Tunes. :crazy:

Forcing Religion down the throats of the public is the true Fundie way. Their version of Religion of course.

[RamboLiberal]

88. Note it comes from Colorado Springs

The looney-tunes evangelical capitol. Ted Haggard country and where the Air Force Academy is infiltrated by this bunch.

When I think about it, it scares me we have fundies flying around with nukes in their bombbays.

[Bill McBlueState]

62. as a former paper boy,

I can say that I would have absolutely detested this back when I had my route.

Adding a bulky supplement to the paper makes it so much harder to deliver. I'll guarantee that not every paper carrier in Pittsburgh is going to make a special effort to actually deliver these.

[Ilsa]

72. What if they delivered canned goods to poor neighborhoods instead?

It's hard to concentrate on praying for food when your stomach is growling.

[Ilsa]

73. Evangelical Christians know they are in trouble.

http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Evangelical-Nation-Surprising-Crisis/dp/0061117161

The numbers don't support these media claims that most Americans are Christian and 25% are evangelical.

I wish I had time to read the whole book.

[classysassy]

74. Understanding

If everyone would just read the Bible and get an understanding of the message therein,this would be a much better country.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

81. You mean like stoning your neighbor to death for eating shellfish?

That message? Or what Jesus said: "I come not in peace but with a sword, and I have come to (set family members against one another)"?

That statement of Jesus is quite true. I know several families whose members have not spoken for several generations because of religion, specifically various forms of Christianity.

[and-justice-for-all]

75. Send the Gazette your opinion..

http://biz.post-gazette.com/contact/comments_form.aspx?ID=38

[RamboLiberal]

79. OMG They are putting the Steelers on the Back Cover

The New International Version translation will have a front cover showing the Golden Triangle, a back cover photograph of Steelers kneeling in prayer and will include testimonies of well-known Pittsburghers.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08132/880909-52.stm

[RamboLiberal]

80. More info from the PG

Based on the Barna findings, Pittsburgh organizers project that a distribution of 400,000 here would result in 36,400 people reading the Bible more often or for the first time; 19,809 making a commitment or recommitment to the Christian faith; 11.207 attending church more often; and 4,385 attending for the first time.

-----

Last month, Philadelphia had an initial distribution of 140,000 New Testaments in Philadelphia and Chester counties. There are plans to distribute another 260,000 in Montgomery, Bucks and Delaware counties in November. Although it was initiated by Protestants, the Catholic archdiocese joined in the effort, as has the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

"The response has been 100 percent positive," said Kevin Mulligan, associate director for communications for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Organizers say it costs $2.50 for each New Testament delivered -- $2 for the book itself and 50 cents for delivery. So far they have raised $350,000, including large gifts from the Thomas J. and Sandra Usher Foundation and the Wiegand Morning Star Foundation, as well as $16,000 from a radiothon on WORD-FM. But they are well shy of the $625,000 needed for a distribution of 250,000 households. The deadline for fund raising to print the New Testaments is May 31.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08132/880909-52.stm

[and-justice-for-all]

85. 100% positive? Not after the email I sent them! nt

[RamboLiberal]

87. There's a liberal talk show host in town not too thrilled

Don't know if it will end up a subject on the host's show though.

[and-justice-for-all]

90. Who might that be?

Would like to send them my 2 cents.

[Sheets of Easter]

93. I'm guessing Lynn Cullen.

[RamboLiberal]

98. Yeah it's Lynn - she hasn't brought it up

I'm not sure if she will or if she'll wait till the bibles get delivered with the paper.

I did send her some of the funny Pittsburgh comments from her.

[Elspeth]

94. Which version of the New Testament: there are at least 8 in general use

plus the looney rewrites that the Left Behind crowd uses to reach their base.

King James, NIV, Jerusalem Bible, all pretty decent to have around for reference. When you are trying to accurately quote the Beatitudes to slam a neocon fundie waiting for the Starship to beam them up, a decent King James or NIV is very helpful.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

97. $625,000 would feed and clothe a LOT of poor people.

That would be far more "Christian".

[minnesota_liberal]

101. Don't want to feed and clothe them, just "save" them!

Gotta have your priorities.

[Regret My New Name]

103. It's their wasted money and their choice, I guess. I want to send out Korans to see how they respond

I bet they would be up in arms... It would be an interesting experiment.

[Regret My New Name]

104. Also... I'd probably give the bible back to the church who did it...

mail it back, walk it back, throw it back, whatever...