Birdy said:
Mr.Q you obviously don't understand scripture, most likely because you need to be spoon fed. Most people can think for themselves and apply a bit of commonsense. Why would the author omit the crucial part of the verse?
Surely if its the Word of God, it is not the place of the writer to censor it in any way? In fact, surely censoring the text would in fact be sinful....
Birdy said:
Perhaps because it wasn't important to the message Jesus was making? You claim God's word should have no inconsistencies, well there aren't any inconsistencies in doctrine. God did not write the Bible Himself, it was inspired by God but written by fallible humans.
So basically, any part of the Bible could be where one of the fallible humans was fallible - therefore when it comes to the Bible one should look at the basic meaning behind things and not the minutiae?
Ha. That's pretty much what I've been arguing the whole time. The Bible has some key tenets, and they are important; to care about the little things is opening yourself up to the Word of Man rather than the Word of God.
Basically, I believe that the main tenets of the Christian religion - as it was meant to be - are those of the Sermon on the Mount (I don't recall anything in there going "Blessed is the bigot..."), and the "new commandment" to "love one another as I have loved you". Neither of those lead to some of the hatred and bigotry of the assorted Churches through the ages, nor the rising bigotry of the religious right.
Birdy said:
Well I hope you have since repented from this idolatry. Mind you I was only referring to some Catholics who cross this line, probably a minority.
I also find this funny - how some evangelical/fundamentalist Christians seem to have more of a problem with Catholics - another Christian sect - than with non-believers. Interesting.