A Shield and a Sword

Why Knowing Scripture Personally Matters More Than Ever

In the long story of human faith, the power to read and interpret sacred texts has rarely been universal. For centuries, communities around the world depended on a learned few — priests, monks, Brahmins, imams, rabbis — to guard, interpret, and relay holy words. In many places, the barriers were real and practical: most people simply could not read, sacred languages were unfamiliar, and books were costly treasures.

Yet, within this mix of material scarcity and sincere devotion, a darker dynamic often took root: when ordinary people could not access or question the meaning of their own traditions, abusive leaders could twist doctrine at will. Religious texts became tools for manipulation — a means to keep followers ignorant, dependent, and obedient.

This is not to vilify every era that lacked printing presses, schools, or widespread literacy. It is to name what history has shown: whenever the knowledge gap widens, exploitation can slip through the cracks. The same story repeats across faiths — whether the Vedas were reserved for Brahmin men, the Latin Mass kept hidden from non-Latin speakers, or the Torah was historically off-limits to girls and women.

Jan Hus being martyred for declaring that scripture should be taught in the common language.

Ironically, we now live in a time of unprecedented literacy. Nearly anyone in the developed world can open a Bible, Qur’an, Torah, Guru Granth Sahib, or Tripitaka in their own language, often free of charge, with commentary and cross-references a click away. And yet — how many of us actually do?

Religious scholar Stephen Prothero (2007) found that over half of Americans couldn’t name five of the Ten Commandments. In an age when nearly everyone can read scripture, too few people do. The knowledge gap remains, not because of Latin or Sanskrit or gender or caste, but because we’ve grown used to letting someone else do the heavy lifting for us.

The danger today is not illiteracy, but spiritual complacency. The same conditions that once enabled spiritual abuse — ignorance, dependence, and blind trust in authority — still lurk wherever we outsource our understanding of what is sacred.

The good news is that the antidote has never been more available. Personal access to scripture is a gift and a safeguard. The more we read for ourselves, the harder it is for anyone to pervert teachings to serve hidden agendas. When we know our own tradition’s texts, the conversation changes — leaders become guides, not gatekeepers. Communities grow stronger. Believers stay freer.

Any time we let someone else carry all the weight for us, we grow weaker. But when we take up the work ourselves — page by page, line by line — faith becomes more resilient, less vulnerable to manipulation, and more capable of offering hope and dignity for all.

Today, access is not the obstacle. Apathy is. Perhaps the simplest spiritual discipline we can recover is also the oldest: open the book. Below these reference, look for our list of amazing men who fought for access to scripture.

References

• Prothero, S. R. (2007). Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—and Doesn’t. HarperOne.

• Duffy, E. (1992). The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400–1580. Yale University Press.

• Gombrich, R. (1988). Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. Routledge.

• Olivelle, P. (1998). The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation. Oxford University Press.

• Brown, J. A. C. (2009). Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Oneworld.

Bábí Martyrs spreading religion texts in Persia

In Honor of the Martyrs

A Timeline of Those Who Fought for Access to Sacred Knowledge

c. 1320s–1384 — John Wycliffe (England)

• Translated the Bible into English. Condemned posthumously; followers persecuted as heretics.

c. 1372–1415 — Jan Hus (Bohemia)

• Advocated for vernacular preaching and scripture for all. Burned at the stake for heresy.

1494–1536 — William Tyndale (England)

• Printed the first English New Testament from Greek texts. Strangled and burned for “unlicensed” translation work.

1563–1606 — Guru Arjan Dev (Punjab, India)

• Compiled Sikhism’s Adi Granth in the local Gurmukhi script, open to all castes. Tortured and executed by Mughal rulers.

1844–1850 — Bábí Martyrs (Persia/Iran)

• Followers of the Báb were executed for spreading new scripture in Persian, challenging clerical monopoly on religious authority.

Late 1800s — Buddhist Monks (Burma/Myanmar)

• Imprisoned or killed by colonial powers for preserving and teaching the Pali Canon and Burmese-language Buddhist texts.

1892–1938 — Liu Zhan’en (China)

• Ran Chinese presses for Bible printing under occupation. Assassinated for refusing to shut down local access to scripture.

Whether under medieval monarchs, Mughal emperors, colonial administrators, or modern totalitarian regimes, the pattern repeats: whenever a gate is locked on sacred knowledge, someone dares to pick it open, often at the cost of their life.

References for Timeline

• Prothero, S. R. (2007). Religious Literacy. HarperOne.

• Duffy, E. (1992). The Stripping of the Altars. Yale University Press.

• McLeod, W. H. (2000). Exploring Sikhism. Oxford University Press.

• Amanat, A. (1989). Resurrection and Renewal. Cornell University Press.

• Bays, D. H. (2012). A New History of Christianity in China. Wiley-Blackwell.

• Turner, A. (2014). Saving Buddhism. University of Hawai‘i Press.