The link between smoking and bible reading

Smoking Curtails Bible Production

There are at least two good reasons to stop smoking (according to ASSIST News Service)

• Number one: It may damage your health.
• Number two: It raises the production costs for bibles.

The Chinese craving for cigarettes is responsible for rising paper costs in bible printing, according to the business manager of the German Bible Society, Felix Breidenstein. Because of the rising demand for cigarette paper in China the special thin paper used in bible printing is getting more expensive, as Breidenstein told the German news magazine Der Spiegel. The German Bible Society sells approximately 400,000 bibles per year.

 

Don’t Smoke the Book of John!

Related to this is a report about Alex, a prisoner in Texas, who described his conversion 30 years ago. While in jail, he regularly used to smoke pages from the Gideon Bible in his cell – when he eventually ‘worked his way through’ it, he asked the prison chaplain for a replacement. The chaplain realised exactly what it was for and simply said ‘Don’t smoke the book of John!’ As a result, his curiosity got the better of him, and so he started reading it. By the time he got to John 3, he was turned inside out – and his life changed course completely. He himself is now a prison chaplain in Texas, working in three different prisons!

Click to find the report, then scroll down to “Texan smoked Bible passages”.