Soldiers’ Bibles American religious history come alive

My Dad's bible is on my desk. My husband's bible and his Dad's bible are in my office as well. The spiritual needs of soldiers during combat has been known since the beginning of time. It has reached the point of importance so much so that atheists now want their own chaplains. This is baffling since the DOD has yet to really understand the power of spiritual healing.

Soldiers’ Bibles exhibit a walk through American history
By Chris Herlinger
Religion News Service
Published: May 2

NEW YORK — The simplicity of the exhibit — copies of the Bible resting in glass cases — can be deceptive.

But the Museum of Biblical Art’s exhibition, “Finding Comfort in Difficult Times: A Selection of Soldiers’ Bibles,” is American religious history come alive.

The exhibit showcases three dozen copies of Scriptures published for members of the U.S. Armed Forces from the Civil War onward, from leather-bound, 19th-century copies to contemporary Bibles clothed in camouflage.

But more than the Bibles themselves — on long-term loan from the American Bible Society — the exhibit tells the stories of the men and women who read them, their struggles with hardship, and the place of religion in their lives.

Given the personal histories they contain, “every scripture in the Rare Bible Collection at MOBIA has its own unique story,” said the New York museum’s executive director, Ena Heller.

Efforts to supply Bibles to American troops began in the waning years of the American Revolution. Decades later, in 1817, the one-year-old American Bible Society began supplying Bibles to the crew of the frigate USS John Adams.

During World War I, General John J. Pershing and President Woodrow Wilson penned messages that accompanied a 1917 copy of the New Testament. In his preface, Wilson, a Presbyterian elder, declared that “the Bible is the word of life” and urged soldiers to read the Scriptures and “find this out for yourselves.”
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