The new U.S. Space Force has an official Bible.
On Jan. 12, a Holy Bible was presented by Air Force Chief of Chaplains Steven A. Schaick, to be blessed by the Episcopal church’s Bishop of the Air Force at the Washington National Cathedral.
While the Space Force is new and under the branch of the Air Force, many questions – some critical – were brought up about this “Official Bible”:
* Is the Space Force promoting a particular religion?
* Is this really an official Bible?
* Why was it blessed by a Protestant minister?
* What if one day in the future, the Space Force Commander is not a Christian?
This will not be the first Bible in space. The pilot of Apollo 1, Edward White Jr., wanted to take a Bible to the moon. Tragically, he and two other astronauts were killed in a flash-fire during a test. In their memory, others started working on taking a Bible to the moon. The Astronauts of Apollo 8 read the first ten verses of Genesis 1 from orbit. This was televised and heard by a large audience. The Bible used was provided by the Gideon’s International.
Apollo 11 was the flight where Buzz Aldrin observed Holy Communion. He had a card with the words of John 15:5 written on one side and Psalm 8:3-4, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” written on the other.
Apollo 12 had an early prototype microfilm of the Bible and a tissue-thin copy of the Bible on board the command module, which stayed in-orbit. It was hoped they would be carried to the moon, but never made it into the lunar module which landed on the moon’s surface.
Apollo 13 had a microfilm Bible on board that was to be the first Bible on the moon. Because of difficulties – made well-known in the movie – they had to head back to Earth and sadly never set foot on the moon.
An amazing thing happened with the Bible concerning Apollo 14. The Rev. John M. Stout – a NASA scientist and Presbyterian minister – had 300 microfilm complete copies of the Bible made. These Bibles – the size of a postage stamp – contained all 1,245 pages and 773,746 words of the King James Bible. Of these, 200 stayed on the command module and 100 traveled to the moon and was with Edgar Mitchell when he set foot on the moon’s surface. These Bibles are called the “First Lunar Bibles.” From time to time, they come up for auction and command thousands of dollars.
The Commander of Apollo 15, Colonel David R. Scott, took a Bible presented to him by his home church to the moon. He left it on the Lunar Rover. It is the only Bible on the Moon.
May the Space Force Bible be with you!
Eric Reece is a columnist for The Graham Star. He is the pastor of Robbinsville United Methodist Church.