Bible read aloud for 5 straight days

Bible read aloud for 5 straight days – in public!
Marathon reading event comes as some governments squelching religion

As your eyes read every word of this sentence, there are eyes of other people simultaneously reading every word of the Word of God.

Aloud.

In public.

On government property.

In front of a replica of the Ten Commandments.

Despite what some feel is a growing trend of anti-God or anti-Bible sentiment in the U.S., there are citizens gathered at this very moment, reading the entire Bible – verse by verse from Genesis to Revelation – for some 90 hours straight.

"It takes about 365 readers if everybody reads 15 minutes," says Donna Healton, who, along with her husband Gene, has organized a Bible marathon in this small city situated halfway between Orlando and Miami on Florida's Treasure Coast. "We never had that many readers, so some people will come and read twice or for half an hour. Of course, it's hard to get people during the night hours, so if you can advertise, we need some night-people readers."

The Healtons are pastors at the Spirit of Prophecy Ministries, and began their first marathon in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"The Lord spoke to us the week after 9/11 that we were to do a Bible marathon for the protection of our nation against terrorism," Donna said. "I thank the Lord we haven't had any terrorist attacks in America since then. I thought that would be a one-year thing because it was a lot of work. My husband and I maybe got nine hours sleep during that whole time. But it was like a mandate and the Lord just wouldn't release us, and it's been every year [since] we've done this."

The event, which began Wednesday and will continue around the clock until Sunday afternoon, features people of all ages who volunteer to read Scripture until the Good Book has been completed.

It has the endorsement of the government of Martin County, but not the city of Stuart.

"The Bible is the Creator's handbook for us. It teaches us and tells us everything we need to go through our lives successfully," said Sue Renard, president of the Stuart chapter of Aglow International, a transdenominational organization of Christian women with more than 4,000 local groups in 165 nations. "It's a comforter, it's strength, it's wisdom, it's love, it's everything to me. ... Reading the Bible is putting the Word out into the land, and it stirs up a right spirit."

Renard was lending her voice to the Book of Judges from the Old Testament during her reading stint at the local bandshell, which has been painted to resemble a panoramic sky, and, says Mrs. Healton, points directly toward Jerusalem.

"We've had street people come. We've had people come and get saved. We've had people come and just sit here and then decide they want to read and they get up there and they start crying because God's touching people," Healton said. "You don't have to even belong to a church – children come over, kids from after school, motorcycle groups come late at night. Anyone who comes can read the Bible. Even an atheist can come and read the Bible, because, you know, it's God Word."

As WND reported this week, federal employees at the U.S. Supreme Court are telling visitors the Ten Commandments being carried by Moses in artwork adorning the high court are not the Ten Commandments at all, but rather the first Ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights.

The politically correct version of American history also has Apollo 8 astronauts reading from "an ancient religious text" and a photo editor busy making alterations to reality for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, so as to obscure the Ten Commandments.

Renard told WND she's aware reading the Bible in public may be considered politically incorrect in today's hypersensitive world, but adds such a sentiment is "not really new."

"There's always been a part of the population that goes in the opposite direction," she said. "God's got all that thing figured out. I don't."