Is Good Book Also a Great Book?

Any 10th-grader who has slogged through a Thomas Hardy novel might well rejoice at Matt McLaughlin’s idea: using the Bible as literature.

Still, the Huntington Beach attorney no doubt shivered the timbers of lots of people who assume his real intent is to implant Christianity into the state’s public school curriculum.

I have no reason to doubt his insistence that he’s interested only in good literature.

McLaughlin, 34, says the Bible has enriched his education. “Even if you don’t believe its teachings, you’ll agree that it includes rich usage of the English language,” he told a colleague of mine. “That’s what makes it good literature.”

Besides, who could argue that a book that has inspired hundreds of millions around the world isn’t a repository of rich language, vivid imagery and compelling stories?

The challenge for the classroom teacher would be to isolate the literature from theology. McLaughlin must trust teachers, because he has begun a petition drive to put a plan on the November ballot permitting K-12 classroom Bible reading, on a voluntary basis, as part of the literature curriculum.

Worth the risk? Is the writing in a holy book so compelling that it should be taught alongside secular classics of Dickens and Dostoevsky?

You decide. I’ve selected a few excerpts -- presumably, the kind of writing McLaughlin argues is worthy of study.

“Lord, said Noah, night and day I have pleaded with my people, but my pleas have only aggravated their aversion. Each time I call on them to seek your pardon, they thrust their fingers into their ears and draw their cloaks over their heads, persisting in sin and bearing themselves with insolent pride.”

Good imagery, huh?

How about this for succinctness and clarity: “The unbelievers are like beasts which, call out to them as one may, can hear nothing but a shout and a cry. Deaf, dumb and blind, they understand nothing.”

Does language get more vivid than this? “They think the day of judgment is far off, but we see it near at hand. On that day, the sky shall become like molten brass and the mountains like tufts of wool scattered in the wind.”

I can picture a good literature teacher asking why this represents strong writing: “It is in the watches of the night that impressions are strongest and words most eloquent. In the daytime you are hard-pressed with the affairs of the world. Leave to me those that deny the truth.... We have in store for them heavy fetters and a blazing fire, choking food and harrowing torment, on the day when the Earth shall quiver with all its mountains and the mountains crumble into heaps of shifting sand.”

For pure literary elegance, how about this passage on what awaits true believers: “[God] will reward them for their steadfastness with paradise and robes of silk. Reclining there upon soft couches, they shall feel neither the scorching heat nor the bitter cold. Trees will spread their shade around them and fruits will hang in clusters over them.... They shall be arrayed in garments of fine green silk and rich brocade and adorned with bracelets of silver. Their lord will give them pure nectar to drink.”

I see potential trouble in separating literature from religion, but as McLaughlin suggests, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Not that it matters (since we’re talking about only literature), but all the passages above came from the Koran.

According to the author who translated it into English for the Penguin Classics book series, “It is acknowledged that the Koran is not only one of the most influential books of prophetic literature but also a literary masterpiece in its own right.”

Enjoy, students. And remember to thank Mr. McLaughlin for his idea.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at

dana.parsons@latimes.com.