Neither repentance nor scholarship in Church leaders’ responses about Bible
NEITHER REPENTANCE NOR SCHOLARSHIP ABOUT MARY TREADING ON SERPENT, "THREE THAT BEAR RECORD IN HEAVEN" -- AND CHILD ABUSE November 21, 2003
Because of worldwide attacks on Christianity, it seems to me to be essential for the Churches to put their houses in order. Examples of opposition to Christianity include: an Italian court ordering crucifixes out of public schools in the latter part of 2003; a U.S. court ordering a sculpture of the Ten Commandments out of court precincts even though the responsible judge has been dismissed rather than obey late in 2003; legislators' outright defiance of the Church and dictionary definitions that marriage is between a human male and a human female; and the decades-long persecutions by Communist and Islamic forces.
Meanwhile, to protect children, to regain credibility, and to deserve a reputation for decency, various religion adherents have been campaigning for their religious leaders to stop denying and obfuscating the facts about clergy sex abuse, and to stop employing, paying, promoting, and hiding accused clergy. But surely, before clearing up anything else, the Churches ought to have their firm foundation, the Scriptures, rock solid. But evidently this is not a priority for leaders in one Church.
Letter to Church leaders: With a letter on April 22, 2003, the widespread erroneous doctrine and images of Mary treading on the neck of the Serpent were drawn to the attention of the premier Australian Catholic Archbishop, Most Rev. Dr George Pell (now a Cardinal) of Sydney. His answer, and those squeezed out of three other Catholic leaders in the following months up to September 22, gave no evidence of repentance for, and retraction of, the false translation in the Vulgate and the Douay Bible (originally 1609 AD) of the Old Testament text, Genesis 3:15, which has "she shall crush" and "her heel" instead of the correct "he shall crush" and "his heel." . . .
NEITHER REPENTANCE NOR SCHOLARSHIP
To print the letter off this Webpage, first click in the Frame or, if no Frames, on the words "Neither repentance ..."
Then take it to Office Works to photocopy each sheet for a few cents.
FURTHER EVIDENCE -- UNITED STATES 1953: On November 8, 2003, after a Baptism I was shown a Family Bible that turned out to be the United States "Confraternity" Catholic Bible, which the Catholic Biblical Association of America under the patronage of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine had issued in 1953. It too has the correct "he" and "his." And, importantly, there's a footnote stating that the "seed" is Jesus.
A personalised case of the Church's confusion is shown by Cardinal Griffin of Britain, who authorised a translator who tried to tell the truth (Knox, 1954), but approved an untrue translation (Douay) the following year. He had the chance to stop error, but failed.
Our Church is held by many people in bad odour for its powerful pursuit of heresy for centuries, but the four replies show a comfortable acceptance of a heresy! Doesn't Jesus forbid dishonesty?
. . .
FALSITIES ABOUT CLERGY SEX ABUSE -- AND BIBLE SCHIZOPHRENIA: So, how are centuries of dishonesty about what is in the Bible related to clergy sex abuse and its related dishonesty? Well, it is possible that if clergy in training learn that Scripture contains unhistorical midrash, that writer's groups such as Priests, Yahwists, and Deuteronomists rewrote the first six books of the Bible, and that there are contradictions in translations, they will adopt the role of having a kind of split morality thought system.
Country after country -- including the Philippines, Malta, and Ireland -- is reeling from the discovery of current and old clergy sex abuse. There's an outcry against the dishonesty of the hierarchy in fostering child abusers, transferring them from place to place, even from country to country, and pretending sex abuse is not currently occurring. Even though the Pope has called clerical sex abuse a "crime," there are repeated Catholic claims that the sex abuse is over, and that it is mainly a United States and mass-media phenomenon. A recent such statement came from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, and drew a U.S. rebuttal.
Australia: Only 18 per cent of Australian Catholics attend Mass regularly, the Press reported Cardinal Pell as saying. The number of Australians who
believe in Christianity of any sort is now at low levels unheard of 50 years ago. Living together without marriage is fashionable, and the percentage of non-clergy marriages and even funerals is increasing. Sunday as a day of rest is relentlessly being eroded. If Churches are going to win back souls, something better than lying on television and hiding "hush money" from the diocesan councils and the news media is absolutely essential!
. . .
On August 7 2003 the Vatican denied the Church's ages-old secrecy policy, under its name Crimen Sollicitationis, but it is still operative, as an Epistula on the internet gives witness. Recently in Hobart another leader denied that there had been prior complaints of abuse against a priest, but he has more recently admitted it, as reported:
He has also acknowledged making a public statement that no other complaints had been made against Monsignor Green when he already knew he had admitted sexually abusing another
boy.
Perhaps public repentance and retraction prayers ought to be recited in churches each weekend. -- November 21, 2003
Link between Bible and sex-abuse dishonesty
The Editor, Nexus and Nova
BIBLE: NEITHER REPENTANCE NOR SCHOLARSHIP -- AND SEX ABUSE
ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO MAIN ARTICLE:
( http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/religion/repentance.htm )
Clergy child sex abuse, which last week led to the Cincinnati Roman Catholic
Archdiocese pleading "no contest" to five misdemeanour counts of failing to
report sexual abuse of children, and being fined $US10,000 (Washington Post,
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1974-2003Nov20?language=printer)
by Alan Cooperman, Friday, November 21, 2003; Page A03.), is still occurring
around the world.
In fact, police using the internet are catching clergy who try to cajole
children in chat sessions to meet them for sexual acts.
So, how does the article "Neither repentance nor scholarship" about
forgeries in the Bible have any relationship to clergy sex abuse?
The author has tried since April 2003 to get the Catholic Church to retract
its Bible verse that suggests Mary will crush the Serpent's head (Genesis
3:15). Nearly every other denomination's translation uses the masculine
pronouns, and other Churches don't have sermons or images of Mary treading
on a serpent.
Moving on, the writer also asked the Church to withdraw and suppress the
forged 1 John, 5:7 "Trinity" proof text, which Erasmus exposed centuries
ago.
The answers he received showed neither repentance nor scholarship, the
author claims.
In some ways the author's mini-crusade parallels the mission of the
survivors of clergy sex and physical abuse. Many Churches have issued public
apologies, and tried to "retract" by setting up procedures to weed out child
abusers, and by paying for counselling and lump-sum compensation. But there
is a lack of genuine deep-seated repentance, and a fearful avoidance of
getting the facts to the pew-fillers, or reporting offenders to the law.
Segments of the biggest Church, Catholicism, fight cases in the courts, and
periodically Catholic spokespeople try to convince their adherents that the
problem happened decades ago, and/or that it is mainly a United States
problem, and/or that the numbers of clergy involved are 1 per cent. The
facts are: It has been a continuing problem for centuries, it is worldwide, 8
per cent or more of clergy are offenders, and some leaders in the bigger
Churches are still trying to excuse and hide their sinning shepherds
An internet search of The Boston Globe Spotlight
(http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse) on Clergy Sex-abuse, and the
Poynter Online Abuse Tracker (http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=46)
reveals the pattern of current offences and the backlog of court cases,
over-arched by a pattern of secrecy and deceit.
The Catholic written secrecy policy Crimen Sollicitationis was exposed in
the USA on July 29 2003, but Archbishop Julian Herranz, president of the
Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts denied this,
according to the Catholic News Service of August 7. When the Strabane
Chronicle of Ireland published "Old Vatican document like nuclear weapon"
(http://strabanechronicle.com/news7.htm) , by Jacqueline Courtney, on August
27, exposing the fact it was quoted as operative on the Vatican's own
website (in Latin, you might have guessed), no more on this was heard from
the Vatican.
(The author does not cover positive aspects, such as the Australian Jesuits'
U-turn prompted by a television expose, possibly because the literature
shows supposed "conversions" by leaders which slowly ebb away.)
BIBLE FRAUD LEADS TO A FRAUD MENTALITY:
Although the article takes a long time to get there, the contention is that
the sex-abuse deception of the leaders of the Latin Church and its dependent
Churches is in line with its centuries of altering the Bible and deceiving
its followers and its own leaders.
In modern times, students for the ministry will find that the number of
disputed passages and forgeries discussed in their study books is enough to
sap anyone's faith. They will not remain "as little children" while they
learn terms like "midrash" (pious myths really) and "variant traditions"
explaining strange incongruities and contradictions. As far back as the Old
Testament there had been falsifications, as recorded in Jeremiah 8:8.
Candidates for the ministry at the outset presumably believe that God exists
and that the current Church is a successor to generations of people, some of
whom received revelations from Heaven, some of which was written down, and
that there is an all-knowing Church leading us to everlasting happiness.
To find that the Bible has been altered by people long after the deaths of the supposed authors of various Bible books must be a hurdle to many sensitive souls. To find that the Church will not retract the falsehoods, or show penitence, must cause serious doubts. (Dare one suggest the modern idea of paying compensation under the Trade Practices Act?)
The more thoughtful, studious or conscientious will find it impossible to go
on preaching from a tainted spring. Those who complete the course and enter
the ministry presumably have a kind of split personality on these subjects,
or can't see the clash.
Why then should we be surprised if an archbishop adjusts his finances to pay
secret "hush money," and then misleads his archdiocesan counsellors? Or
denies that silence is the condition of receiving compensation? Or denies
that a victim told him of an offender? Or denies that the percentage of
clergy offenders is far larger than has so far been revealed by the actions
of the survivors and the courts? "What is truth?"
The author ends with a suggestion that the offending Churches should have
prayers of repentance each weekend. -- November 23, 2003
ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO THE MAIN ARTICLE
(http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/religion/repentance.htm)
FOR GOOD TEACHINGS TO BE HEEDED, A BIG CLEANUP IS NEEDED!
Opposed to Unjust Wars, Irresponsible Sex, Drugs, and Dishonesty?
Can your Preachers convince the public while under a cloud?
Break the Deadlock!
Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker moved from January 1, 2004, to
www.ncrnews.org/abuse
Composed on Microsoft® Word© and on Ms WordPad© on 21 November 2003,
spellchecked with Ms Word 2000© (Regionalised spelling and grammar retained where applicable) on 04 Feb 04,
last modified 10 Feb 04
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