Prodigal Son wrote:Because they are scary! Many believe the Bible literally -- meaning the idea the world was created only 6,000 years ago or that Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale makes sense to them.
Anyway, the Bible is a good piece of literature. Why would I want to ban it?
Not all (in fact, not even most) religious people take the Bible that literally. Most people I know regard the old Testament as the oral tradition of the Hebrew people, while taking most of the new testament very seriously as the teachings of the Messiah himself. The Bible predates science, so the knowledge gleaned from within should not be taken with a scientific state of mind (not any more than one would look to the Illiad from a scientific POV).
Of course, there are the whackies. Believe it or not, they are not even a plurality of practicing christians, they are just an exceptionally well organized minority. Candidates court them because they will vote in a block, while with a less cohesive group, like Catholics (I'm a Catholic), a large number of individuals can be expected to vote according to their own criterion, regardless of the canon of the church, hence courting the church's stances may turn a few old timers (most of whom grew up pre Vatican II), but will have less effect overall than pandering to the evangelical protestants.
"[R]emember, Roman, these will be your arts: to teach the ways of peace to those you conquer, to spare defeated peoples, tame the proud."
-Virgil, the Aeneid