Daily News Journal Column 8/19/18 Amazon is a popular whipping boy for the many who long for the good days of “real” bookstores, but if you’re like me, you may have a different perspective. If you didn’t grow up in a big city, bookstores were fairly thin on the ground. I was a book-starved teenager long ago who was thrilled just to learn that the local mall (in Tallahassee) was opening a Walden Books, which was the first bookstore chain to have a store in every state. Even the little paperback Penguin Classics and Everyman Library books they carried were a revelation. I knew of no used bookstores in our town at the time and the only other place I knew of that sold actual books was the drugstore, which didn’t have a real deep bench, let’s say. In my years of loitering in bookstores, I’ve often come across titles like, “The Lost Books of the Bible,” or “Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” “Mysteries of the Bible Explained,” and “Hidden Books of the Bible Revealed,” etc. Usually you could pick them up and read the first page of the preface to learn that the author was something akin to the guy who wanted to sell you “The Secrets to Winning at the Stock Market!” In other words, yet another scam, with the added frisson of religion. Over the years, with the multiplication of outlets, Cable TV, Internet, etc., I’ve witnessed the same expansion of hucksterism make its way into previously respectable organizations like mainstream national newspapers and magazines and even the National Geographic and its TV arm. Time and Newsweek have for years had the seeming attitude of “if these cretins insist on going to church at Christmas and Easter, let’s at least give them some of the latest hoaxes about Jesus we can find.” Secrets of the Nativity! Was there Really a Star? The Wise Men. Who Were They and What Were They Really Doing There! I’ve heard content chieftains say things like “We just give the public what it wants.” Well, stop it. One time I heard a father answer the question, years ago, why he didn’t let his kids watch TV by responding, “Same reason I don’t let them drink out of the toilet.” Some of the stuff people believe astounds me, but nobody ever taught them otherwise. Churches and pastors have sometimes fallen down on the job as well, because many Christians have been taken in by over-hyped claims like you find in books by the Dan Browns and Bart Ehrmans of the world. Typically, what hoaxes have in common is described well by Phillip Jenkins of Penn State who says, “The real (story) was hidden behind the deceptive façade of Christianity, until hidden and suppressed documents were found which exposed the truth and overthrew a conspiracy that had lasted for centuries.” I will be teaching a class on Bible Hoaxes this year at Adventures In Learning, along with one on Politics and Religion and How to Read the Bible. AIL is held at First United Methodist Church on Thompson Lane this year on three Mondays, September 10, 17 and 24 from 9:30 to Noon. Most attendees are retired and some of the classes offered are, History of the War in Vietnam, Tips and Tricks for your iPhone/iPad, Stress and Relationships, Rutherford County History, the Opioid Epidemic and more. Hundreds of retired Boro-ites have attended the AIL for 28 years. Email AILmurfreesboro@gmail.com for more information on how to register and follow Adventures In Learning on Facebook. Steve Odom is pastor of Central Christian Church and recently discovered a cache of letters from the Emperor Constantine in his church basement. He may be reached at steven.odom@gmail.com