[CS-FSLUG] NI: Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible

[Fred A. Miller]

I just rec'd this from someone here in the US. I've not had time yet to check 
it out, but here it is for all to review.

Fred
____________________

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C13509-1811332%2C00.html

Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
  
THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching
document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not
actually true. 
 
The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their
five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of
scripture, that they should not expect "total accuracy" from the Bible. 

"We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or
complete historical precision," they say in The Gift of Scripture. 

The document is timely, coming as it does amid the rise of the religious
Right, in particular in the US. 

Some Christians want a literal interpretation of the story of creation,
as told in Genesis, taught alongside Darwin's theory of evolution in
schools, believing "intelligent design" to be an equally plausible theory
of how the world began. 

But the first 11 chapters of Genesis, in which two different and at times
conflicting stories of creation are told, are among those that this
country's Catholic bishops insist cannot be "historical". At most, they
say, they may contain "historical traces". 

The document shows how far the Catholic Church has come since the 17th
century, when Galileo was condemned as a heretic for flouting a
near-universal belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible by
advocating the Copernican view of the solar system. Only a century ago,
Pope Pius X condemned Modernist Catholic scholars who adapted
historical-critical methods of analysing ancient literature to the Bible.

In the document, the bishops acknowledge their debt to biblical scholars.
They say the Bible must be approached in the knowledge that it is "God's
word expressed in human language" and that proper acknowledgement should
be given both to the word of God and its human dimensions. 

They say the Church must offer the gospel in ways "appropriate to
changing times, intelligible and attractive to our contemporaries". 

The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but
continue: "We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other,
secular matters." 

They go on to condemn fundamentalism for its "intransigent intolerance"
and to warn of "significant dangers" involved in a fundamentalist
approach. 

"Such an approach is dangerous, for example, when people of one nation or
group see in the Bible a mandate for their own superiority, and even
consider themselves permitted by the Bible to use violence against
others." 

Of the notorious anti-Jewish curse in Matthew 27:25, "His blood be on us
and on our children", a passage used to justify centuries of
anti-Semitism, the bishops say these and other words must never be used
again as a pretext to treat Jewish people with contempt. Describing this
passage as an example of dramatic exaggeration, the bishops say they have
had "tragic consequences" in encouraging hatred and persecution. "The
attitudes and language of first-century quarrels between Jews and Jewish
Christians should never again be emulated in relations between Jews and
Christians." 

As examples of passages not to be taken literally, the bishops cite the
early chapters of Genesis, comparing them with early creation legends
from other cultures, especially from the ancient East. The bishops say it
is clear that the primary purpose of these chapters was to provide
religious teaching and that they could not be described as historical
writing. 

Similarly, they refute the apocalyptic prophecies of Revelation, the last
book of the Christian Bible, in which the writer describes the work of
the risen Jesus, the death of the Beast and the wedding feast of Christ
the Lamb. 

The bishops say: "Such symbolic language must be respected for what it
is, and is not to be interpreted literally. We should not expect to
discover in this book details about the end of the world, about how many
will be saved and about when the end will come." 

In their foreword to the teaching document, the two most senior Catholics
of the land, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster,
and Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Archbishop of St Andrew's and Edinburgh,
explain its context. 

They say people today are searching for what is worthwhile, what has real
value, what can be trusted and what is really true. 

The new teaching has been issued as part of the 40th anniversary
celebrations of Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council document
explaining the place of Scripture in revelation. In the past 40 years,
Catholics have learnt more than ever before to cherish the Bible. "We
have rediscovered the Bible as a precious treasure, both ancient and ever
new." 

A Christian charity is sending a film about the Christmas story to every
primary school in Britain after hearing of a young boy who asked his
teacher why Mary and Joseph had named their baby after a swear word. The
Breakout Trust raised £200,000 to make the 30-minute animated film, It's
a Boy. Steve Legg, head of the charity, said: "There are over 12 million
children in the UK and only 756,000 of them go to church regularly. 

That leaves a staggering number who are probably not receiving basic
Christian teaching." 

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

UNTRUE

Genesis ii, 21-22

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he
slept he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the
rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and
brought her to the man 

Genesis iii, 16 

God said to the woman [after she was beguiled by the serpent]: "I will
greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth
children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule
over you." 


Matthew xxvii, 25 

The words of the crowd: "His blood be on us and on our children." 


Revelation xix,20 

And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its
presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received
the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. These two were
thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone." 


TRUE 

Exodus iii, 14 

God reveals himself to Moses as: "I am who I am." 


Leviticus xxvi,12 

"I will be your God, and you shall be my people." 


Exodus xx,1-17 

The Ten Commandments 

Matthew v,7 

The Sermon on the Mount 

Mark viii,29 

Peter declares Jesus to be the Christ 

Luke i 

The Virgin Birth 

John xx,28 

Proof of bodily resurrection

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