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I wish every Bible given or sold was required to add the following warning label:

“Warning! Do not use as a textbook, rulebook or drug.”

The Bible isn’t a textbook because the heart of its message is understood symbolically not dogmatically. My warning label might have a picture of church people afraid to look through Galileo’s telescope. In the corner of the picture would be a smirking biblical expert showing a chart of the earth as flat with relevant bible verses.
Bible training shouldn’t be the functional equivalent of a lobotomy. The Bible is a horrible textbook on astronomy, geology or the biology of human sexuality. That same scripture, understood poetically, can be a wonderful aid at helping us figure how the truths of science can be converted to meaning for living. For that to happen, we must never pit the claims of religion against those of science as if they were speaking of our world in the same way. Science tells us what the facts are, religion is the art of turning truths into meanings. To that end, the Bible should stoke the fires of reason, not extinguish them.

Just as the Bible is a poor substitute for a brain, it is also a poor substitute for a sense of justice. The Bible isn’t a rule book, because justice is relational not abstract. We cannot mistreat others just because we can find a verse in scripture that allows it.
While most turn to the Bible for personal guidance, there always some who turn to it in an effort to control others. On my warning label, I would have a picture of an inquisitor torturing a pagan. The inquisitor would have a kindly smile and a picture of hell to assure all concerned that he was only torturing the poor man to save him from an even worse fate.
When human beings appoint themselves as God’s enforcers, they see their own sins as marginal and their victim’s as unforgivable even to an all-powerful God. Thus they mistreat others to save them. They secretly picture society as a totem pole with themselves mounted on everyone else’s back leading them to the good shepherd. They cut the Bible’s clear message not to judge into verses, and then rearrange those verses into honey coated daggers of judgment.

Finally, the Bible is not a drug. Just as many turn to scripture to gain power, others turn to it as a surrogate to the art of living. They would rather read Psalm 19’s depiction of the sky, than actually look up in wonderment at the actual gift that has been given them. They can sing the songs of David, but cannot hear the song of their own hearts.

To illustrate this warning I would simply post a medieval Christian painting with dull colors, no depth perspective or understanding of anatomy. Perhaps people could realize that is what the whole world looks like to one lost in artless religion.

There are those who love God and the angels, but are numb to the aspirations of actual human beings. There are those who weep for the wounds of Christ who cannot find a tear for those who suffer today. There are those who long for eternity who are indifferent to the beauty of this moment. The Bible should not be a heart by-pass, if it does not make us more loving, we have misunderstood.
If I could, I would put a warning label on every Bible given or sold:

“Warning! Do not use as a textbook, rulebook or drug.”