After the advent of the written word, the masses who could not - or were not permitted to - read, were given sermons by the few who could.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It is to be deeply regretted that the clergymen would oppose an effort to teach the people the Bible truths; nevertheless, we find much opposition everywhere, and many clergymen will attempt to prevent the people from reading what is here written.
This doctrine of Christ and of the apostles, from which the true faith of the primitive church was received, the apostles at first delivered orally, without writing, but later, not by any human counsel but by the will of God, they handed it on in the Scriptures.
When the Bible was first published, bathhouses were mandatory, no one could read, and only the people in the Church could write.
They believed that every man should know how to read and how to write, and should find out all that his capacity allowed him to comprehend. That is the glory of the Puritan fathers.
Among the children of God, it was they who were most able to rightly divide the word of truth.
Sermons remain one of the last forms of public discourse where it is culturally forbidden to talk back.
The Romans had been able to post their laws on boards in public places, confidant that enough literate people existed to read them; far into the Middle Ages, even kings remained illiterate.
The Bible was written by fallible human beings.
Over the centuries, and even today, the Bible and Christian theology have helped justify the Crusades, slavery, violence against gays, and the murder of doctors who perform abortions. The words themselves are latent, inert, harmless - until they aren't.
Words were not given to man in order to conceal his thoughts.