Even if President Obama were a Muslim, would that be such a big deal?
The misapprehension that Barack Obama is a Muslim demonstrates more than simple confusion about the basic fact of the president's religion.…
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
126 - Baronius
"about the link, she does bare some thought, wouldn't you agree?"
Not really. It's an example of the conspiracy-theory approach to biblical scholarship. It speculates that something happened without any evidence, and offers the fact that there's no evidence as proof that there's a cover-up.
127 - handyguy
Possibly the church hierarchy who decided which books to include in the New Testament and which not to, were human and had human prejudices and failings, and therefore left some good stuff out and included some questionable stuff.
Elaine Pagels makes a pretty interesting case for the importance of several of the Gnostic Gospels.
I'm not a believer, but I find the history of the Bible and its relation to actual events [or not] fascinating.
128 - Glenn Contrarian
Roger and Zing -
Can the "justification by faith" and the "justification not by faith alone" verses be harmonized? Zing doesn't think so, and I'm not sure about what Roger thinks.
But this is how they ARE harmonized: It's like food and water. We are kept alive by eating food, right? Surely, and we can see this in Scripture as well. But is food in and of itself enough? No, for we need water, too.
So it is with faith and works. There is no doubt that faith is crucial to justification before God...but faith is in and of itself insufficient before God.
Thus the statements of Paul and James are justified.
And Roger - you did not answer. Are you a "non-denominational Christian" as I suspect?
129 - jeannie danna
Baronius,
I just wanted to get your take on the subject of Magdalene as one of the Twelve, not just a close follower.
I went to a Roman Catholic parish school, taught exclusively by nuns. It could not have been easy for the sisters, forced to tell the children that Mary Magdalene was a *fallen woman*.
I never believed that story.
So, when this type of information started revealing itself, I thought there must be a grain of truth here. She was smeared by the Catholic Church, it was political.
130 - roger nowosielski
I didn't answer, Glenn, because the question has no bearing. As to harmonization, if you reread my post, you should know what I think.
I've been plain enough.
131 - Cesar
Jeannie, the Twelve are listed repeatedly. Mary Magdalene wasn't one of them. I personally never held it against her that she was a former sinner, because all of Jesus's followers were sinners.
The Twelve were jerks. One of them stayed by Jesus's side while he died, ten of them deserted him, and one of them ran off and killed himself. We don't respect them because they were perfect; we respect them because they became holy leaders of the Church. We don't disrespect Mary Magdalene because she wasn't one of the Twelve; we respect her because she was holy.
Handy, you've hit on a real problem for non-Catholics. You can't have an inerrant Scripture without an inerrant Church which collected it. Either the specific people who compiled the Bible were guided by God (which I believe) or they weren't (which you believe), but there were specific people who made judgement calls about Holy Scripture. As for believing that the fans of Paul tried to elbow out Peter in the 3rd century or whatever, well, that's just speculation. There's no historical or textual evidence to support it.
I remember hearing a biblical theorist talking about Jesus's supposed brothers, who he claimed were de-emphasized by later generations. But they'd missed one line of the Gospel when they scrubbed it clean, he noted, and that proved that they'd scrubbed it clean badly. No, it proved that they hadn't scrubbed it clean, because it was still in the text!
The thinking really is in line with conspiracy theorists.
132 - jeannie danna
Cesar,
With all due respect, I don't know what denomination you are.
Have you personally read the Dead Sea Scrolls?
See, this is why , religion is such a touchy subject...
133 - jeannie danna
Ceasar,
Here you are, claiming to know Christ and all about his followers and what jerks they were...if you really knew, Christ, you wouldn't be flinging mud...you would be gracious and respectful of others, just like Baronius.
:O Notice I didn't say, me
134 - Baronius
Jeannie, that was me, Cesar Baronius. The comment filter has been giving me problems from remote locations.
135 - Clavos
Cesare! Buon giorno!
136 - handyguy
The notion of an "inerrant church" just makes me roll my eyes and sigh. The same "inerrant church" that endorsed the Inquisition?
137 - jeannie danna
Baronius,
What! You were Ceasar? LOL!!!
138 - jeannie danna
Then, you need to sit down and have a talk with him, because he didn't come across as being very religious. :)
139 - Baronius
I thought I'd explained this clearly enough. I was having problems with remote access (something about the comment filter) so I used a slightly different name. Most BC locals know that my screen name comes from Cesar Baronius, church historian. I didn't think it would stump anyone.
140 - jeannie danna
Sorry, Baronius, my humor is not coming across. I was being lighthearted.
Church historian, how interesting. :)I'll try not to pester you with a million questions!
141 - eric
No its not a contest. But truth is swept under the rug by the ever righteous christians pointing fingers at the muslims. Killing is not ok. Extremists are doing the killings and the followers of extremist thinking. Religion is not trutworthy,its manmade. I personally believe in me. Whoever my maker is I will learn when I die.