The Heather Petero Show
The Heather Petero Show is about creativity, faith, and living on purpose—minus the pressure and the perfectionism.Hosted by lifelong creative Heather Petero, this podcast features honest conversations, solo reflections, and stories from people learning to show up fully in their lives. Expect encouragement, laughter, a little truth-telling, and reminders that you don’t have to have it all figured out to take the next step.✨ Stay curious. Stay creative. Live on purpose.
The Heather Petero Show
Episode 14: Special Release Episode: America Reads the Bible Event
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What happens when people stop skimming, stop reacting, and actually listen?
My guest is Bunni Pounds, and we’re talking about America Reads the Bible—a major public event in Washington, D.C. happening April 18–25, 2026, with an opening celebration on April 18 and a full week of public Bible reading at the Museum of the Bible from April 19 through 25. The event’s official materials describe nearly 500 readers and more than 475 leaders, with the reading livestreamed nationally on Great American Pure Flix.
But this conversation is about more than one event.
We talk about why reading great books still matters, why ancient texts still shape modern lives, and what happens to a culture when people lose the habit of reading deeply. We talk about the Bible not only as sacred Scripture for millions, but also as one of the most historically influential texts in the world—one that has shaped language, literature, art, ethics, and public imagination for generations.
We also talk about the importance of honoring the Hebrew Scriptures—not as a mere prelude, but as ancient, sacred writings treasured in Jewish tradition for millennia, carrying memory, poetry, lament, covenant, wisdom, and hope. This is a conversation about history, heritage, reverence, and why reading foundational texts out loud still matters in a distracted age.
And yes, this is a big event. Public materials for the opening celebration name Patricia Heaton, Candace Cameron Bure, and Cameron and BJ Arnett, while broader event coverage also names readers and participants such as Danny Gokey, Meredith Andrews, Chonda Pierce, Kathy Ireland, Jen Lilley, Kevin Sorbo, Colton Dixon, John Cooper, Kim Walker-Smith, Leeland Mooring, Jennie Lee Riddle, Dallas Jenkins, and Andy Erwin.
It’s thoughtful, rich, historically grounded, and deeply timely.
This is the Heather Patero Show where Conversation Meets Calling. Well, hey friends, welcome to the Heather Patero Show where Conversation Meets Calling. Of course, I am your host, Heather Patero. Hey, listen, here's a question I've been sitting with lately. When did we stop reading things all the way through? I mean, we live in a world of fragments. Little quotes, quick summaries, strong opinions formed off three sentences, and a graphic somebody posted with way too much confidence. And I think something real gets lost in that, not just information, but depth, patience, and our ability to connect with stories bigger than ourselves. Coming up in Washington, D.C., an event called America Reads the Bible is bringing together hundreds of voices for a public reading of one of the most historically influential texts in the world. The opening celebration is April 18th, and then daily readings run April 19th through 25th at the Museum of the Bible. The event has nearly 500 readers involved, a live stream for people joining from anywhere, and yes, some very recognizable names attached, with readers and worship leaders across the week, including people like Danny Gokie, Meredith Andrews, Patricia Heaton, uh BJ Arnett, and so many more. Just check it out. So now whether you come to the Bible as sacred scripture or as a foundational historical text or somewhere in between, it is hard to overstate its reach. It has shaped language, literature, art, law, ethics, and the imagination of generations. It also includes the Hebrew scriptures for a text sacred to Jewish communities for millennia before Christianity ever entered the story. So today I want to talk about what it means to return to an ancient text that still refuses to go away. What we lose when we stop reading deeply, and what still happens, maybe especially in a noisy age when people gather to read something important or out loud. My guest is Bunny Pounds, founder and president of Christians Engaged, author, speaker, and one of the people helping give shape and voice to this week. Bunny, welcome to the show. Well, Heather, it's an honor to be with you. Well, before we get to the event, I always want to start with the person because people can read the title, the organization, the books, but I want to know who you actually are. For people meeting you for the first time, who is Bunny Pounds at the heart level?
SPEAKER_00I'm a mom. I'm a very young grandma. Um, I love Jesus. I fell in love with Jesus when I was 13 years old. I fell in love with his word. I love to tell everybody about Jesus, whether that's uh politicians that I worked through with for years and years, or if that's people in my own hometown. Um, but I'm always looking of how to disciple a nation one heart at a time.
SPEAKER_01Well, you built a life at the intersection of faith, leadership, and public life. When did that calling first begin to shape in you?
SPEAKER_00Well, I was I had some incredible mentors growing up. Carrie Job's father, um, Mark, and Sandy Job were my youth pastors. I had um James Robison in my life. Um, I worked for him for a few years when I was in Bible college at when I was 18 and 19. But in the political space, I was a 28-year-old mom when I got really politically active, uh, really about the sanctity of human life issue, very concerned about babies in the womb. And that um made me kind of evaluate that maybe we need some missionaries in America that are doing things not in a traditional fashion, but are speaking the truth in love. And so I went back to college at Dallas Baptist University, got my political science degree um at night, three and a half years of night school, and landed a job with a U.S. congressman um in 2017 or 2007. And that began um a 16-year career in politics and government that I'm forever grateful for.
SPEAKER_01Well, your new book is Stepping Up to Lead, and it draws from the book of Nehemiah. That's a very specific choice. What drew you into that text in such a deep way?
SPEAKER_00Well, about 15 years ago, I started a Bible study with congressional staffers and state rep and state senate staffers, and I said, I want to just study the book of Nehemiah together. And I just got into it, Heather. And for the last 15 years, I've been deeply studying the book of Nehemiah. There is so many leadership qualities in this man's life that really causes me to want to be better. He was a galvanizer, he was a mobilizer, he had administrative gifts, which you don't see a lot of times where you have a visionary, but they don't know how to implement, right? He was favored of the Lord. He had wisdom to be um strategic and not share every thought in his brain at every moment. Um, he was a man of prayer and fasting. He knew how to get people and put them in order and to get them moving on the tasks ahead. And so, yeah, this book is really a culmination of a lot of years of studying the book of Nehemiah. It's a chronological study of the whole book. It also goes through the 16 characteristics of Nehemiah. I think every leader in our country should implement. And then I have discussion questions and also modern American stories of some of my friends, whether it's HUD Secretary Scott Turner or Leland, the worship leader, or Patricia Heaton, Hollywood actress, um, that are really impacting culture and exemplify those different characteristics in their sphere of influence.
SPEAKER_01So, what do you think people misunderstand about leaders who work in the space between conviction, service, and public responsibility?
SPEAKER_00I don't think they understand all the landmines that people have to navigate. Um, you're in a culture that doesn't have a biblical worldview, doesn't any even understand your worldview most of the time. And you have to navigate those relationships, whether that's a member of Congress that's trying to navigate um people's hearts and conversations within his own party or across the aisle, trying to debate issues, and you don't even have the same framework of understanding on a topic, it's extremely difficult. And then you've got to guard against anger, unforgiveness, offenses, bitterness, you know, of people not understanding you and you're not understood. Uh, and then you throw in the challenge of speaking the truth in love and speaking the inalienable word of God. Um, it's difficult for people, whether they're in higher education, whether they're in media, whether they're in government. Um, and I wish pastors, frankly, would have a lot more grace for people that are missionaries in the culture and would pray for them more and hold them up in high regard as leaders that are really making a difference and not um just claim that ministry behind a pulpit is the ultimate ministry. Really, all of these spaces of influence are deep ministries and the people that are in them feel that deeply.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're living through a reading crisis, not just literacy in the basic sense, but attention, patience, and depth. People are reacting to summaries of summaries and then wondering why everything feels shallow and overheated. What do we actually lose when people stop reading great historical text deeply?
SPEAKER_00It's funny that you mention that because I just bought the Count of Monte Cristo to start for after I get through. America reads the Bible. It's only 1,264 pages or something. Um, but when you think about the Bible specifically, since that's the event I'm about to lead, America Reads the Bible, we we miss the whole council of God if we pick and choose. We are so used to in American culture picking out our favorite verse to go on our Instagram feed or what's on our coffee mug, or you know, this this story about Jesus makes me feel good, or we we lose so much depth of understanding of the knowledge of God, who he is, what is his grand story in the planet. And then we also lose our identity. Our identity, Heather, is that God calls us to himself to have a relationship with us, to restore us back to walking with him in the garden like Adam and Eve. But for what purpose? The purpose is for us to be a part of the great adventure of God, that we get to walk with him, know him, and impact other people. That is the greatest adventure that we could ever live. And so when we're not reading King's, um, when we're not reading David's story with Saul, when we're not understanding uh Lamentations or Ecclesiastes, and we're not seeing some of these nuggets of wisdom and the full story of God's relationship with his people and God's relationship with us, we kind of get this watered-down version of Christianity that's really concerning to me. And when I think about the Chinese church, when I think about the Iranian church and them just grabbing scraps of Bible, right, and holding on to it for dear life. I think we've missed an opportunity to hear from the Lord in places that we need to hear from him from. So that's why we're reading 84 hours of the Bible. That's why we have almost 500 readers reading the entire Bible. Was that difficult to put on? Absolutely, the hardest thing I've ever done. But is it gonna be worth it? Yeah. We're reading all the genealogies, we're reading all the rape sections, we're reading all of the problems that people, you know, Romans 1, um, my Floyd Floyd Brown that got fired from the Kennedy centers reading Romans 1. Um, we are reading every single scripture, and I think it's gonna be deeply impactful for the American people.
SPEAKER_01So, what does slow reading still teach us that fast consumption never can?
SPEAKER_00It teaches you um that there's always a beginning point of a story and there's always an ending point. And the things that we sometimes grab out of context might not mean exactly what we think it means. You know, when you look at um 2 Chronicles chapter 7, which we all love to pull the scripture, 2 Chronicles 7, 14. If my people that are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will forgive their sins and heal their land. When we look at that scripture, it can go on a pretty coffee mug, but I mean, really, the Israelites were going through hell. Uh, they were in um utter rebellion against God. Um, there was famine in the land, the enemies were coming in, they were being destroyed, and the Lord spoke to them out of heaven and said, If my people, this is a call to the people of God, you know, we're gonna have a very famous person read that. We will be announcing it soon. Um, who will be reading that scripture? And I hope we understand the context of it. And that's what we're going to be doing is reading the chapters leading up to that and the chapters leading after that so that we see the full context of that powerful prayer and that commission for us. And uh, that's what I hope people realize that God wants to speak in a very deep way.
SPEAKER_01Well, and I think it's important for culture to stay connected to its foundational stories. Tom Sawyer's still important. Why are the stories of the Bible still important, right? You know, it it is. At some point, a person just needs to sit down with the actual thing and just read it. I mean, that's what it boils down to. The whole thing, not the three quotes that, as you said, got turned into uh a coffee mug or a cute little sign for our kitchen or our bedroom, right? Uh so let me say something direct here because I think it matters for this conversation. For millions of people, the Bible is sacred scripture. That's real. And I don't want to flatten that. But even for someone approaching it historically, literarily, or culturally, this is still one of the most influential books the world has ever known. So much of our language, our art, our moral vocabulary, our storytelling, our shared references are shaped by it, whether people realize that or not. And when you talk about the Bible in a public setting, how do you honor both its sacred significance and its historical influence?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, my friend Eric Metaxis wrote a book, is Atheism Dead. And I love that book because he goes through not only the archaeology, not only the medical scientific um reality, but he's pretty much just saying uh it's really hard to be an atheist nowadays uh because of all of the truth that we see and what backs scripture up. I mean, even while we're at the Museum of the Bible reading scripture for seven days, uh the Dead Sea scrolls are there, you know, the fragments of the scrolls that were found that were 2,000 years old that back up the scrolls in the canon of scripture. So it's really hard for people not to believe, but at this at the same time, there are so many amazing historical stories in this, if you just look at it in that realm, that can impact your life. Um, heroes that we can implement. I mean, if you look at the Roman and Greek gods and Roman culture and Greek uh, you know literature, um, you're gonna go, oh, that's worthy to read. Uh, it impacts Western culture. Same as scripture. The Bible has impacted Western culture more than any other book. Uh, we had like, I think 27 founders of our nation were seminary graduates when they signed the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Everybody had an understanding of scripture. Even our own, our most secular founding father, Benjamin Franklin. I just got done watching that amazing movie, uh, The Great Awakening, which I highly recommend of his relationship with George Whitfield. And I mean, even Benjamin Franklin's like standing up at the end of the US at the Constitutional Convention going, hey, maybe we should talk to our creator here. Maybe we should have congressional prayer. So there's so much that we can learn, Heather, in this. And I and I pray, we're praying for two things. We're praying for the American public to wake up that there's some wisdom in this book for them. And we're praying for the complacency and apathy to be broken off the body of Christ as it relates to scripture, that we need the scriptures every day in our life to make it.
SPEAKER_01Well, sometimes when Christians talk about the Bible, the Old Testament gets treated like a preface, as if it's just there to hurry us to the main part, right? And that that's a loss because those writings, the Torah, the Psalms, the prophets, the wisdom books, the laments are ancient layered sacred text. For Jewish communities, these are not warm-up chapters, these are holy writings treasured for generations upon generations. So let's talk about that with real respect as well. Why was it important that America Reads the Bible include the full text and not just the familiar passages?
SPEAKER_00Well, I love what's going to happen April 18 at our opening celebration because Leland is going to sing a song that he just wrote about the red thread throughout all of scripture, from Moses to David to Solomon to um the the three uh you know, children in the fire. All of it uh testifies of a God, a creator, and a messiah named Jesus. Um, and we're gonna be preaching about that on that night. Um, the story of God goes throughout the entire Bible. Um, we're even hosting my friend Mindy Oden's amazing 66 paintings of the Messiah showing up in all 66 books of the Bible. Um, you know, we're spending $100,000 on a ballroom to host her art while we read the Bible, and her art's going to be on the ceiling and the walls of the theater as these books are being read, because that is a critical point. Jesus is the seed in Genesis. Jesus is the king uh in kings. Jesus is um, he shows up everywhere, right? Um, he's the mobilizer in Nehemiah, he is the sustainer, he is the one that we go to, he's the good shepherd. Um so if you lose the connection between the old and the new testament, you lose really what Jesus fulfilled and the power behind the entire story and the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus. Uh, he was the Lamb of God from the beginning of time, and he is the Lamb of God when he returns. And so I pray that people get that and understand that when they read any part of Scripture, God can speak.
SPEAKER_01Well, what do the these texts, especially the Old Testament, contribute to our understanding nowadays of justice, memory, suffering, lament, and hope that isn't replicated elsewhere?
SPEAKER_00Well, if you just look at the prophecies of of the Lord, we see that God is a God who is faithful and he doesn't change. When you look at the nation of Israel today, um, greatest miracle, I think we could all say uh that in 1948, a nation was born in a day. Um the the scriptures are infallible. Um, it's being lived out in front of us today, and we get to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_01It's awesome. So let's talk about the event itself because this is not just a tiny little side project. This is a real national undertaking. Where did the idea for America Reads the Bible come from?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, I was in the Museum of the Bible two years ago, and I had just finished my new draft and my new book, Um, Stepping Up to Lead, Rebuilding a Nation in the Footsteps of Nehemiah. And I was in the back of this pew watching Ezra stand up with a scroll, reading Genesis 1, and light goes around the room, and I couldn't stop crying. And I'm like, why am I crying? And it hits me, this is the problem with the modern American church. We need an Ezra moment so that we can have a generation of Nehemiah's arise that Nehemiah wouldn't have been able to mobilize the people of God to repair the walls of a nation if it wasn't that they hadn't come back to their understanding of who they were and their true identity. That took Ezra, the priest, trying to restore the temple and reading the scroll. And then after they repaired the walls in Nehemiah 8, they read the Bible again. Um, and that ushered in revival and a great awakening. Um, that's when it hit me, man. It would be great if our national leaders had a moment where they could say, you know, we're some of the high-performing people from multi-denominations, from different spheres of influence, different demographics, but we need the Bible every day just to make it. You, the American people, need the Bible every day just to make it, and call the American people back to biblical literacy, call them back to daily Bible reading and discipleship for the well-being of our nation and for leaders to be a rise to rise up in our nation in the future. Um, it's a moment of gratitude, Heather. It's a moment of reflection, it's a return. So, yeah, that's where the idea came from. And I'm a weird leader. I'm a mobilizer, I'm an implementer, and I'm a visionary. So I wrote out like a 10-page memo to myself that was confidential. And um, yeah, 14 months ago, we took a leap of faith and we just went for it. And here we are.
SPEAKER_01Well, what has surprised you most as it's come together? I mean, has there been any moments of Lord, this is great, but also a logistical beast?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, my vice president Ben Quine had to divide up the whole Bible. Um, we had to divide it up in 84 hours because a normal audiobook is about 72 hours. So we wanted to make sure that we could schedule the Bible, schedule famous people when they needed to be there. Um, then we had to decide uh who's reading all the difficult passages. So we spent about six months recruiting uh professors and college presidents to read genealogies and difficult passages that nobody else wants to read. Um, getting 122 ministries on boarded was extremely difficult. I spent last year doing 200 Zoom meetings with ministry leaders. And then once we had all the ministries onboarded, we had to do it again with celebrities and elected officials. So it's been a brutal process, uh, Heather. It's not been fun on every every day. Um, it's been very hard for our team as we couldn't really staff up. We had have uh my director of America Reads the Bible is a contractor. We have several contractors we've hired full time, but most of us are our full time staff that work for Christians Engaged or Family Policy Alliance, our parent ministry that have taken on extra tasks and extra things related to this event. And uh, I'm very happy for my team and I know all of us would say this is the greatest thing we've ever shepherded, and it's the greatest thing we've ever done. And um, but yeah, it's it's been hard.
SPEAKER_01Well, give us the full overview. The opening celebration on April 18th at Capitol Turnaround, then the daily readings April 19th through 25th at the Museum of the Bible. The official site describes over 475 leaders involved, and the press materials say nearly 500 readers. That is a big operation. So, how do you even begin organizing something at that scale?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, April 18, just so everybody understands, it's gonna be a 90-minute show live streamed on Great American Pure Flicks across the nation. You can sign up for the live stream right now at America ReadtheBible.com. Um, but that's gonna be a 90-minute show of Leland singing amazing song, Phil King singing Heal Our Land, um, leaders from all spheres of influence, like our national spokesperson, Candace Cameron Baret, and Cameron and BJ Arnett from the Forge movie, Patricia Heaton. We'll have a cabinet secretary there that we'll be announcing soon. Um, members of Congress. Um, we'll have pastors, Tony Perkins, David Barton, Pastor Alan Jackson, uh Dr. Adam Wright from Dallas Baptist University, Billy Hollowell from CBN. I mean, it's the who's who of the Christian movement, sharing their testimony related to the Bible and calling the American people back to daily Bible reading. And then myself and Kyle Lance Martin get to preach the gospel at the end. Um, that is gonna be an amazing show that will be um we have over 2,000 churches and universities now talking about streaming that program and part of the Bible reading across the country. It'll be on radio, on bot radio, American Family, Salem, Hope Media is all doing it on radio across the country. We're so thankful for all of our partners. And then we start 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for seven full days, Heather. Um, five to 10 readers per hour. Uh, national worship leaders are on for six hours at a time. So what that looks like is Danny Goky's in the back green room. And when the hour of reading is done, you know, if it's 50 minutes or 45 minutes or 55 minutes, he hops on the stage and he does a prayer and worship moment and fills up that hour. And then we start again the next at the top of each hour. So it's gonna be amazing and it's gonna be impactful for people.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Well, let's get practical because I want listeners to know exactly how to be part of this. If someone wants to attend in person, what do they need to know? The event page says the Museum of the Bible experience requires a $50 advanced purchase ticket with no walk-up entry for the live reading. Walk us through what that includes because the site also says that tickets include a timed three-hour theater window, access to the special art exhibit, partner interaction, prayer opportunities, and then the museum access for the rest of the day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So people get a ticket from like 9 to 12. They can go to the Bible reading, sit in the Bible reading for three hours. They can experience our private art gallery with my friend Mindy Oaton's amazing 66 paintings of the Messiah showing up in all books of the Bible. We're really not gonna keep people in or out. You know, we're not gonna be monitoring that too much. They can pretty much hang out as long as they want. Um, but they also have uh access to the whole museum of the Bible for that whole day. Um, if somebody gets a ticket in the evening, they can come to the museum earlier in the day and then go to the Bible reading in the evening. Um, the Dead Sea Scrolls is a separate ticket of $10 that people can literally go walk up and get that timed and buy that at the museum when they get there. But I mean, the museum of the Bible is four different levels. It is, it will take, it takes a normal person five to six hours to go through the museum. So there's a ton people can do. I'm really recommending to everybody they come to the Bible reading for a couple days, experiencing different parts and experience and break the museum up because there's so much there. Um so that's an amazing um moment. Um, we still have some tickets to the opening celebration if people want to come to that and and experience the first day of the reading. Um yeah, the live experience is going to be powerful for people in the room. And we hope people around DC or get a plane ticket and come be a part of it because it will, you'll never forget it.
SPEAKER_01Well, I imagine it can be a meaningful multi-day trip. So uh for people who can't travel, tell us what the online experience looks like.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just uh quickly just go to the website at america readsthebible.com, register, you'll get instructions, but it will be at pureflix.com. Um, they will send you uh an email when it's going live each day with the agenda. Um, but this is gonna be an opportunity for people to stream this in their churches, put it on their TVs. We'll send instructions of how to get it on all your devices. You can carry it around on your phone, you can play it in your offices for your employees. Uh, we're really asking people to get very creative. You know, have your small group over for an evening. Uh, plan your kids, sit your kids and grandkids and say, we're gonna read the book of Job together as Turning Point Faith reads Job or Franklin Graham reads Luke 10 and Samaritan's Purse reads Luke. You know, whatever it is, you can see the whole agenda at America ReadsTheBible.com and pick your moments, right? Um, you know, and some people, frankly, Heather, need to just take off work and they just need to sit under the public reading of scripture all week. I I'm getting emails right now of people that are doing that. That is gonna be so deeply impactful. And that's one of the reasons why we planned it for 12 hours a day and not to go through the night, because we want people to actually experience the Bible reading. But this will be an audio and video Bible on the back end as well. You'll be able to access it nonstop at pureflex.com and America Reads the Bible.com. So we we hope it impacts people for years to come.
SPEAKER_01So, Bunny, you care deeply about the next generation, discipleship, mentorship, formation. Let's go there. What do you hope younger people see in an in an event like this?
SPEAKER_00Well, we're having a Gen Z summit because we believe that um young people are hungry for truth and they're hungry for fellowship, they're hungry for tackling the hard issues. And and so when you read the Bible all the way through, you're for sure reading hard issues that they want to grapple, grapple with. So um, we're having members of Congress speak to them, we're sending them on a U.S. Capitol tour and having um speakers that are not afraid to speak boldly on the things happening in the culture. So um, yeah, young people can check that out. Our Gen Z summit called Return, if they're 18 to 30 year olds, that's happening next week.
SPEAKER_01So, what would you say to someone who wants to engage with the Bible but feels intimidated or just doesn't know where to begin?
SPEAKER_00I I like to say just read it. Um, you know, I always send people to the first the book of John first. John or Luke are just such great gospels to start with and kind of get your feet wet uh reading scripture. But, you know, I think we have this weird idea, Heather, similar to sharing the gospel. Like nobody wants to share the gospel because we don't ever feel like sharing the gospel. Well, you you never feel like reading the Bible either. Do you ever feel like doing anything? Uh, very, at least I don't. Um, so I think we have to just get make a choice. And, you know, the whole idea of I've decided to follow Jesus is I've decided to follow Jesus. And you show up and you open up your Bible and you just start reading. And what I found through 37 years of doing this, um, from the time I was 13 on, is there's not a day that goes by that I don't start reading the word of God and something jumps off the page, or you know, I I see something I didn't see before, or oh wow, that character's kind of cool. Or, you know, maybe that's connected to this other scripture I read. It's just, it's a wild thing, the word of God. It speaks because it's connected to a live person who's also alive.
SPEAKER_01I think a small daily habit of Bible reading, I I know for me has been very influential in my life. Um, I I usually wake up about 7:30, 8 o'clock, because I I'm a music teacher and so I teach late into the evening. So I I sleep in usually a little bit unless I have a, you know, a Sunday morning event. But the first thing I do before I get out of bed is turn on my UVersion app and I let it read to me the chapter of the day, usually as a scripture of the day, you know, a verse, but I go ahead and tell it to read the whole chapter. And there's just nothing like starting your day in the Word of God and just kind of just sets the tone for the day, right? Especially, and I and I do agree, I love that you said John, because John is my favorite book of the Bible, and it's hopeful, it's full of light and life. And I think so many people get bogged down in the old testament where there's the you know the the bad things, there was a lot of war happening, you know, especially that was documented in the old testament. And I think people shy away from that because it feels very negative and not very life-giving. So starting at a neutral spot, you know, with the pure good news of the gospel, I think you're right on is is start there. Start in the book of John or even the book of Romans, you know, I think would be a great place to start.
SPEAKER_00And I'll say this, Heather, I'm a real fan of the one-year Bibles, because you get a little bit of the Old Testament, a little bit of the New Testament, you get a Psalms and a Proverb every day. And so you get a mix and you you're still getting the Bible in chronological order, but you're not consuming just the Old Testament or just the New Testament. So it's a really cool resource, and they have it in multiple translations. Um, and uh, we have a sponsor actually for America Reads the Bible that's giving away a million one-year Bibles. So it's called a uh million one-year Bibles, and they can check them out on our America Read The Bible.com website.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. So, how do we help younger people learn to love truth without making it feel heavy or inaccessible?
SPEAKER_00I I think we have to have conversations and not be afraid to talk about hard topics. Some of us like to run away from some of these topics. Even pastors don't want to preach on them because they don't want to have to deal with it. They don't want to have to talk to people afterwards or or answer for whatever they said. And so, you know, we have to be not afraid to have hard conversations and talk through differences and talk through what the Bible, you know, hey, let's just open the word and let's just read scripture and see what he says about that, you know, whether that's biblical justice, biblical economics, um, whether that's, you know, the sanctity of human life, transgenderism, gender issues. I mean, there's just a lot that we we need to really dive into. And young people just want to be heard, they want to be listened to, and they want to like discuss. And they don't want people to get upset, you know, if they have a differing opinion. Um, they want to be exposed to the truth and they want to be exposed to different points of views.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think our young people today are are hungry. They're and they're hungry, you're right, just to be heard and and uh to know that they're loved, just like all of us. Well, before we go, I want to give you the last word. What do you most want listeners to take away from this conversation, regardless of where they stand on faith?
SPEAKER_00I want them to understand that there's hope and there is a God who loves them and a God that wants to invite them into uh a story that goes beyond themselves. And that story is uh a story of redemption and a story of restoration, a story of freedom. And uh, he wants to meet you in the words and the pages of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01So let's recap for someone who wants to attend live in person in DC, where should they go?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, America Reads The Bible dot com. Grab your tickets to the Museum of the Bible to the opening celebration, um, and then join the live stream at America Reads the Bible.com. Sign up for the live stream and carry it around on your phone or plan an event in your in your living room.
SPEAKER_01So, where can people find you and stay connected with your work and pick up your book?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Christiansengage.org, America Reads the Bible.com. Um, go to Amazon or Christianbook.com. You'll see my book, Stepping Up to Lead, Rebuilding a Nation in the Footsteps of Nehemiah. And it's out for pre-order right now. So pre-order it and help me get to number one.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. My guest today has been Bunny Pounds, and this has been such a rich conversation. Here's what I keep coming back to. Great texts are meant to be read all the way through, not skimmed, not reduced to the three quotes that made it onto somebody's coffee mug. And the Bible is one of those texts. It is ancient, layered, challenging, beautiful, and still deeply influential. It carries law, poetry, lament, and story and hope. Its Hebrew roots belong to a living tradition that long predates Christianity and continues to shape Jewish communities around the world. And its impact on language, literature, art, ethics, and public imagination is hard to overstate. So if you want to be a part of America Reads the Bible, this opening celebration is April 18th, and the daily readings run April 19th through 25th at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Of course, there is a live stream. I hope you'll check it out. As always, thank you for listening to the Heather Patero Show where conversation meets calling. Until next time. You've been listening to the Heather Potero Show, produced by Heather Patero Studios. Connect with us on Facebook or Instagram, or visit Heatherpatero.com. Until next time, stay creative and live on purpose.