Few people realize our educational system in the United States began as a direct result of religion. One of the main reasons many of the pilgrims came here was for religious freedom. Upon arriving, the early settlers taught the Bible at home. Soon they began to develop an educational system…
“The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Version” (Oxford University Press) was the PC biblical makeover of the year. Note these changes: The Lord’s Prayer now begins, “Our Father-Mother in Heaven.” The 63rd Psalm’s “Thy right hand upholds me” made lefthanders feel bad and is now “your strong hand upholds…
Unfortunately, Moyers’ 10 part series reveals more about the participants than it does about Genesis. With a little nudging from the host, we hear about this rabbi’s divorce, that minister’s bout with surgery, this scholar’s near suicide, that ex-nun’s rejection of hell. And Oprah is nowhere in sight. Feminist rage…
“Who is Jesus?” says Jennifer Kondak, a Presbyterian from Royal Oak, Michigan, “That’s one of the burning questions in my life. I think it’s wonderful that scholars are still studying this. The people who make me angry are the folks who take every word of the Bible as true.” At…
Because the Gospel of Judas portrays Judas as a hero rather than a villain, some people have given the impression that it is somehow an antidote to historic Christian anti-Semitism. This response is ironic, since much of early Gnosticism was deeply anti-Jewish. Gnostics believed that there were actually two Gods,…
A recent news story announced the release of a new version of the Bible designed to meet the needs of churches desiring to be more attractive and market-oriented. According to the information, the Bible published by Western Bible Foundation cut out passages such as the Ten Commandments, sections of Isaiah,…
“Samson exhibited almost all the symptoms of ‘Anti-Social Personality Disorder,’”says Dr. Eric Altschuler in Archives of General Psychiatry. Although the biblical hero is credited with extraordinary strength and remarkable exploits—such as the slaying of a lion and moving the gates of Gaza—he was also apparently a bully, a thief, and…
Someone has written: “In 1400 B.C. a group of nervous Egyptians saw the Nile turn red.” But what they thought was blood was actually an algae bloom which killed the fish that, prior to that, had been living off the eggs of frogs. These uneaten eggs turned into record numbers…
This is an old, old argument, originally purported by George Llamsa, who went around America touting the “Aramaic Gospel” with lots of odd translations that “made more sense than the original Greek” and “proved that Aramaic was the true common language of the day in Palestine during the time of…
FIRST SESSION Meditation in Buddhism and Prayer in Judaism and Christianity: A Tip of the Iceberg for Divergences and Convergences It is estimated that in any given day in America, up to 20 million people engage in some form of meditation. We will explore the implications of this popularity to…
