Should the Bible be considered fiction? That was a question that surfaced when a

pastor in Simi Valley, California noticed that all the Bibles at a Costco were labeled as

fiction. It was a two-day story that resulted in Costco issuing this apology stating that the

“distributor mislabeled a small percentage of the Bibles.” They took responsibility and

acknowledged that they “should have caught the mistake.”

In this case, we are told to forgive and forget. Or to use a sports metaphor, “no

harm, no foul.” And I am willing to move on, but call me skeptical. Somehow I just

doubt that a Qur’an would ever be labeled as fiction in Costco or any bookstore. I doubt

you find the book Dianetics written by Scientology’s founder L Ron Hubbard in the

fiction section. And I can think of a number of autobiographies that probably deserve to

be in the fiction section of a bookstore.

Steven Smith (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) said the fiction label

probably says more about the labeler than about Costco or even the Bible. We live in a

day when it is becoming more and more acceptable to label the Bible as fiction. Pick up

any of the books written by the so-called “New Atheists.” They will assure you that

Christianity is false and religion is a dangerous enterprise. So we shouldn’t be surprised

that someone in distribution decided to promote his or her views about the Bible through

a Costco price tag.

When the Los Angeles Times wrote about this, they told a similar story from a

California Middle School. A teacher instructed students to read a nonfiction book for

homework. When the teacher saw that a seventh-grader brought a Bible, he said, “That’s

not a nonfiction book.” A short disagreement followed in which the student said he felt

humiliated. To prove his point, the teacher polled the students, asking how many thought

the Bible was a nonfiction book. All of two raised their hands and agreed with the student.

The incident in Costco might have been a mistake, but I expect to see more

incidents like this from skeptics who believe the Bible is merely fiction.