Most of the Mass in fact is taken word-for-word from the Bible. If you sit down with a Missal and just go through you will find that not including the three Bible readings and Psalm that are in every Sunday Mass, all the major parts of the liturgy quote extensively from the Bible, as do the people's responses. I could go through the whole service line by line, but here's one example: the response of the people to "behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (which is itself a quote, John 1:29) is "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you [under my roof will be added in 2011] but only say the word and I shall be healed." Matthew 8:8.
The Church has encouraged Bible reading for years and years (about the time folks started being generally literate). In fact, the old Bible that belonged to my aunt-in-law has a proclamation in the front from Pope Leo XIII of a thirty-day indulgence for all who read and meditate devoutly on Sacred Scripture for half an hour. That proclamation was made in 1898.
I always have my iPhone in the pocket of my choir robe (with the sound turned off) with the entire Bible in English and Latin. But the readings for the day are in the pew in front of you. And there's Bible study every Wednesday night, every Wednesday morning before the work day begins, and two Bible classes on Sunday morning between Masses - one for the teenagers and one for adults. There's also a Men's Bible Study but I'm not sure when it meets.
And the bell ringing doesn't tell anybody when to stand or sit. What it tells you is when the priest elevates the Body and Blood of Christ. That is the summit and zenith of the Mass, Christ becoming present on the altar. At that point, everybody is already kneeling and has been since the Sanctus.
I am beginning to suspect that your brother-in-law is pulling your leg. I have occasionally myself seen how much a radical anti-Catholic can swallow, but I don't do it any more because they are so credulous that there's really no point.
The best thing for you to do is go talk to a priest and get the straight skinny. Relying on hearsay and what you think is happening when you don't know the program is probably not the best way to form an opinion.
ping to my post 57