Staff Reports
Don Ashley did something most Americans wouldn’t even think about: he sat down, pen in hand, and wrote the entire New Testament by hand. According to a CBN interview, he did this while retiring, moving from Alaska to Arkansas, and recovering from serious surgery. It’s a quiet, stubborn act of faith that tells you more about the revival of old habits — and common sense — than a thousand think‑pieces ever will.
A quiet act of faith, not a stunt
Let’s be clear: this wasn’t a publicity stunt. The CBN interview frames Ashley’s project as a devotional discipline — the old practice of “scripture writing” taken to its full, deliberate extreme. People write Bible verses in journals for focus and prayer. Don Ashley decided to write the whole New Testament. While some people spend retirement driving a golf cart in circles, he picked up a pen and reclaimed a tradition older than the printing press. That’s worth noticing.
Why handwriting still matters
Hand‑copying Scripture connects the head and the heart in ways a scroll on a screen never will. For centuries monks and scribes preserved God’s Word by hand; modern believers who write the Scriptures often say the act helps them remember, meditate and repent. Ashley’s decision to write while healing from surgery makes the point: faith is also therapy. If scrolling endlessly calmed the soul, social media would have saved us already. Instead, physical effort — slow, careful, patient — reshapes the spirit.
Tradition with a practical payoff
There are recent examples around the world of people hand‑writing whole New Testaments or Bibles, especially during times of upheaval. During the pandemic, folks in India and elsewhere used the same discipline to find focus and hope. Ashley’s choice to do this amid life changes — retirement, a big move from Alaska to Arkansas, and recovery — shows that ordinary Americans still seek concrete ways to practice faith, not just tweet about it.
A witness to community and conscience
Here’s the conservative angle: faith is public, practical, and stubborn. When elites tell us religion is private and obsolete, ordinary acts like Ashley’s prove otherwise. This kind of witness doesn’t demand applause. It tugs at neighborhood conversations, church pews, and family tables. People who see a handmade New Testament on a coffee table are more likely to ask why — and that question can be the start of something bigger than an online sermon clip.
What this should prompt us to do
Don Ashley’s handwriting project should push us to value simple, costly acts of devotion. Instead of outsourcing our spiritual life to apps and algorithms, try something steady and human: read aloud, write a chapter, invite a friend to copy a verse each day. The culture wars the media obsess over won’t be settled by hot takes; they’ll be won by lived faith, handed down one deliberate stroke at a time. If that sounds quaint, good — sometimes quaintness is just courage in disguise.
