In a new Bible this fall: no more 4 gospels but one
One step closer in agreement with the Holy Quran:
US Christians are making the 4 gospels into ONE gospel
By Tim Murphy, Religion News Service [source]Bob Sanford wanted to create a Bible that would bring order and clarity to the text. Instead, he’s waded right into one of the great debates of biblical scholarship.The Chronological Study Bible will be released this fall in the midst of a Bible-publishing boom in the United States. In an industry that now as much to do with profits as with prophets, Sanford expects his new edition to have wide appeal.
“(Our challenge) is to take the scholarship and make it enjoyable to a readership that enjoys history,” said Sanford, who oversees the Bible division for the giant Christian publisher, Thomas Nelson.
The company has carved out its share of the industry’s estimated $500 million annual haul by cornering the market on niche markets, such as families and teenagers.
The latest edition rejiggers the order of books, psalms, and Gospels in an effort to provide a historical framework for a text most scholars consider chronologically challenged.
So, for example, whole sections of Isaiah and Nehemiah are reordered to better reflect an accurate historical timeline; the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are merged into one based on Mark’s chronology; and some of St. Paul’s letters (which traditionally appear later in the New Testament) are woven into the Book of Acts.
Some biblical scholars, however, aren’t buying the idea.
“I would say, generally speaking, that scholars would have no interest at all,” said Pat Graham, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta. “What it ends up being is something that laypersons find helpful — or would think it would be helpful. Any biblical studies expert worth their salt would not have much interest in this at all, except as kind of a curiosity.”
At issue for scholars is a question they have grappled with for generations: When — and by whom — was the Bible written? For readers, the larger question is this: Does it really matter if Ezekial, say, appears before or after Nehemiah, and does it make a difference if a biblical timeline looks more like a zigzag?
The most recognizable changes in the Chronological Study Bible come in the placement of non-narrative sections — the books that aren’t necessarily anchored by specific people, places and events. The book of Psalms, which appears in the middle of the Old Testament in most editions, is split up in the the new edition by time period. All Psalms relating to David, for example, will instead appear as supplements to the relevant books of the Old Testament such as 1 Chronicles.
Sanford says unlocking and reordering the Bible’s chronology can help readers understand the context in which portions of the book were written. But in practice, scholars say, this can prove challenging.
For some biblical accounts, such as the Israelites’ exile to Babylon, there are historical accounts to support the narrative. Other stories require a leap of faith, however. Scholars say trying to rearrange individual books requires getting to the bottom of some of the world’s oldest known cases of identity theft: Many biblical works were the handiwork of multiple authors, all writing under a single name.
“It was very common in antiquity to attribute one’s own writings to the most important historians in the past,” said professor Michael D. Coogan, a professor at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., and editor of the New Oxford Annotated Bible. “It happens not just in the Bible — Socrates certainly didn’t say everything Plato quotes him as saying.”
Take, for example, the Book of Jeremiah, which was written by an undetermined number of authors over an unknown period of time. Some narratives are repeated and any semblance of chronology devolves into a jumble of dates and places.
The Bible’s order is significant for other reasons as well. Some scholars worry that changing the order would impact the Bible’s meaning and diminish the value of non-narrative elements, such as the book of Psalms.
“Part of the problem, and to me one of the flaws, is the assumption that this Bible is working with — that (narrative) — is the primary genre of literature in the Bible. That just isn’t true,” said the Rev. Bruce Birch, who teaches at the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.
Graham, who called the idea of a chronological Bible “radical,” offered a helpful suggestion for potential buyers.
“It’s like you would attach a pack of cigarettes with a warning label from the surgeon general,” Graham said. “Well, this Bible should have a warning from the theologian general or something: ‘This bible may be harmful to your spiritual health.‘”
All is not lost for the book’s publishers, however. While the Ivory Tower cries heresy, the book’s target demographic seems more receptive to the idea. The Rev. Brad Riley, a pastor at the First Church of the Nazarene in Wichita, said a chronological Bible would likely be most useful for newcomers to the faith.
“The Bible can be intimidating for people … and the chronology can help people put the timeline together in their minds,” Riley said.
The Rev. Tommy Bratton Jr., who leads group Bible study at the First Baptist Church in Asheville, N.C., agreed.
“We try to put our Bible studies now in context of when things occur,” Bratton said. “It would give people, I think, a greater sense of how things were laid out in that way.”
Whether or not the book will win any converts in academia, Sanford thinks his new edition will be a success. There have been chronological Bibles before, he says, but none specifically geared toward Bible study. If everything works according to plan, the newest product will provide a fresh perspective on an age-old bestseller. And on this, the experts begrudgingly agree.
“You’re writing a new biblical narrative,” said Timothy Beal, a professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. “I guess in this age of (cutting and pasting), it seems like a way to come up with a new Bible.”
Esam Mudeer: This USA Today’s article is the most disturbing and damaging revelation concerning the alleged divine authorship of the Bible.
Long before all this the modern and academic shocking discoveries, the Holy Quran of the Muslims is by far the first and most critical of all approaches to cut to the heart of the long disputed matter.
Consider and ponder upon the following verses from the Quran:
And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires, and they do nothing but conjecture. Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say: “This is from Allah” to traffic with it for a miserable price! Woe to them for what their hands do write and for the gain they make thereby. HQ 2:78–79
Also, the Holy Quran does not speak of 4 gospels but only one true Injeel (gospel) attributed to no other person but Jesus Christ, peace be upon him.
I invite you to read this book Is the Bible the Word of God? by Ahmed Deedat while bearing in mind USA Today’s article.
Read the book online here | MS Word Doc. | Scribd PDF
Listen to the content of the book: Debate – Is The Bible God’s Word – Ahmed Deedat Vs Jimmy Swaggart 1 (www.aswatalislam.net).mp3
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
You can also watch the debate of Youtube.
Woman claims priest tried to rape her as child
WILMINGTON — [source]:
A 55-year-old Delaware woman has filed a lawsuit claiming she was abused by a priest when she was a child, and that another priest intervened when her tormentor tried to rape her on a beach.
Attorneys filed the lawsuit today in Sussex County Superior Court on behalf of Mary Dougherty against the Diocese of Wilmington and Holy Rosary Church.
Dougherty claims that she was abused by the Reverend Leonard Mackiewicz in 1966, when she was 13, and that he also abused nine other children.
Mackiewicz, who was removed from the ministry in 1987 and died in 1994, is among 20 diocesan priests with substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse.
Bob Krebs, a spokesman for the diocese, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Pastor Steps Forward With New Claim of Past Sexual Abuse
A Harlem pastor and retired police officer said on Thursday that he was sexually abused as a teenager by Msgr. Wallace A. Harris, the prominent and popular priest who was suspended indefinitely by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York two weeks ago on the basis of similar complaints by two other men.
The pastor, Eric C. Crumbley Sr., 42, who leads a nondenominational storefront congregation known as the Harlem Faith Center, said his motivation in coming forward with the accusation now was to lend moral support to the two men, the first of whom contacted the archdiocese in June. The second was located by the Manhattan district attorney’s office as it investigated the first man’s claim; prosecutors determined that the statute of limitations had lapsed for the two complaints, which concerned events about 20 years ago.
Neither man has been identified by prosecutors or archdiocesan officials, and Mr. Crumbley says he does not know who they are, either.
“I just want them to know they are not alone,” he said in an interview Thursday afternoon, sitting amid the seven rows of chairs that make up most of the furnishings of his small church in a commercial building on Frederick Douglass Boulevard. “I know what happened to those boys because it happened to me, too,” he said. “I’m telling them: ‘I support you.’ ”
Monsignor Harris, 61, who was pastor of the Church of St. Charles Borromeo in Harlem for almost 20 years, did not return phone calls seeking comment. He has denied the earlier charges, according to archdiocesan officials, but has not spoken publicly about them.
Before the monsignor was suspended from pastoral and priestly duties on July 30, he was considered a rising star, tapped by the archdiocese in April to arrange the largest event of Pope Benedict XVI’s recent visit, the Mass at Yankee Stadium. He was Gov. David A. Paterson’s pastor, and delivered one of two invocations at the governor’s inauguration in March.
Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the archdiocese, said on Thursday that Mr. Crumbley had not contacted church officials with his accusation. “We would invite Pastor Crumbley to report the allegation to the district attorney,” Mr. Zwilling said, “and to meet with appropriate representatives of the archdiocese to relay his story and prepare a signed statement, as we would with any person having an allegation of abuse.”
Mr. Crumbley said that he did not intend to file complaints with the district attorney or the archdiocese, and that he was aware the statute of limitations would preclude any prosecution. He announced his accusation in a news release, through a public relations agency, which he said he employed because he did not know how to contact the news media.
In his statement, Mr. Crumbley said he was “sexually molested numerous times on various occasions by Father Harris, from the time I was 13 to 16 years old.”
He said he first met Monsignor Harris when he was an altar boy at the Church of St. Joseph of the Holy Family on 125th Street, where the priest was assigned as associate pastor immediately after his ordination in 1972. Mr. Crumbley said Monsignor Harris baptized and confirmed him, and acted as his sponsor in the sacrament of confirmation.
“He and I were so close when I was growing up that people used to call me ‘little Father Harris,’ ” the statement said. “I loved him. But Father Harris repeatedly manipulated seemingly innocent, everyday situations to his advantage to create any excuse to touch me improperly — more specifically, to fondle or to grab my genitals.”
At the urging of Monsignor Harris, Mr. Crumbley said, he decided early in his life to become a priest, attending the Cathedral Preparatory High School and College in Manhattan, then a seminary in the diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island, before changing his mind and becoming a New York City police officer.
Mr. Zwilling, the archdiocesan spokesman, said he was unable on Thursday to confirm whether Mr. Crumbley was a student at Cathedral Prep, which has since closed.
But Daniel Donohue, 44, a Cathedral Prep graduate who later brought charges of sexual abuse against the school’s rector at the time, Msgr. Charles M. Kavanagh, said Thursday that he remembered Mr. Crumbley as a student there.
“He was one of Father Harris’s boys,” he said, explaining that most priests at the time had close friendships with a group of favored students.
The two men who first accused Monsignor Harris said the abuse occurred while they attended Cathedral Prep, according to two people familiar with the district attorney’s investigation.
Mr. Crumbley was a police officer from 1987 until he retired in 2002, but the New York Police Department would not provide any details on his career. He was one of two patrolmen who received public praise in 1991 for capturing a man later convicted in connection with five sexual attacks on women in Forest Hills, Queens.
He said he considered coming forward with his accusations against Monsignor Harris several times in the past 20 years, but felt “the time was not right” until now. He and the monsignor remained close for a short time after he left the seminary to become a police officer, Mr. Crumbley said, but the two had not spoken in the last five years.
He said he felt no malice toward Monsignor Harris, but needed to speak up for his own sake, as well as for that of the two other men.
“With the exception of sharing this information years ago with a couple of very close people in my life, I have held what happened to me in secret,” he wrote in his statement. “As a result, for years I have lived with intense anxiety, sleeplessness and night terrors. The experience also has affected my personal relationship with women.”
He said he was divorced from the mother of one of his children, and no longer living with the mothers of his two other children.
While the archdiocese looks into the two earlier complaints against Monsignor Harris, members of St. Charles Borromeo have rallied to his defense. Several Masses at the church have included prayers for his return.
One parishioner, Janice Moore Smith, wrote recently on a Web forum for Catholics: “I do not believe the allegations that have been made against Monsignor Harris. You would have to know him to know that he is a man of integrity, compassion, sound judgment and superior intelligence.”
Monsignor Harris has led many community outreach programs, organized a food distribution network that is considered one of the most reliable and extensive in Harlem, and helped revive St. Charles Borromeo after its previous pastor went into drug rehabilitation.
Mr. Crumbley agreed that Monsignor Harris had accomplished much good. “What his parishioners say is all true — he is a great guy, capable of great things.”
Pastor, 54, Commits Suicide
By Alva P. Wolokollie [source]:
Published: 15 August, 2008
MONROVIA, The senior pastor of the Jesus Christ the Name Above All Names Church, Pastor Patrick Korto, has committed suicide at his Du-port road residence in Paynesville city outside Monrovia. He is believed to be 54 and had a 50 to 60 membership in the church.
Grand jury gets church sex abuse case
August 15, 2008 13:35 EDT [source]
MARYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A judge in Maryville has sent a church sex abuse case to a Blount County grand jury.
Michael Salazar and Laura Lee Click Salazar were charged by police with statutory rape and sexual battery against three teenage girls in the youth program at Lord’s Disciples Ministries of Whosoever Will church.
The husband and wife are both 35 years old.
The cases were bound over at the Salazars’ initial court appearance on Friday.
Police Chief Tony Crisp said further charges are possible, noting that three other girls came forward after the Salazars were arrested, saying they, too, were sexually abused.
Second priest charged over sex
A SECOND Catholic priest has been arrested and charged in relation to child sex offences in the Newcastle area.
The priest was arrested this morning following a lengthy investigation into alleged child molestation, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.
He was charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to other priests involved in the investigation.
The arrest comes a day after a priest from the Newcastle-Maitland Diocese John Sidney Denham, 65, was charged with 30 child sex offences and refused bail.
Denham is alleged to have sexually assaulted 18 boys, who at the time were aged between 11 and 18.
Police allege the assaults took place at St Pius X high school in the Newcastle suburb of Adamstown in the late 1970s and that Denham continued offending in the Charlestown parish in 1980.
Denham was arrested in Kensington yesterday, and later faced Central Local Court where he was refused bail [source].
Another priest faces child sex charges
Sydney Morning Herald – Sydney,New South Wales,Australia
Child sex – 2nd priest charged
NEWS.com.au – Australia
Second Catholic priest charged
ABC Online – Australia
Abuse probe snares second Catholic priest
[source]:
A Catholic priest has been charged with perverting the course of justice as part of an investigation into sexual abuse in the New South Wales Hunter region.
Police are revealing few details but say the offence relates to a statement provided to a police investigation in 1998.
The 70-year-old man has been bailed to face Newcastle Local Court on September 9.
The charge comes a day after a 65-year-old priest faced court accused of sexually abusing 18 boys in the region in the 1970s and early 1980s.
John Sidney Denham was charged with 30 child sex offences relating to boys aged 11 to 17 at the time.
Sixteen of Denham’s alleged victims attended St Pius X High School at Adamstown. Another boy was from a parish near Newcastle, while the 18th was from Taree.
He also worked at Sydney’s Waverly College during the 1980s and 1990s. None of the charges relate to his time there.
Denham was on restricted duties, working as a librarian at a theological college next to a Sydney school before he was arrested yesterday.
He was remanded in custody and will face Newcastle Local Court on October 2.
The Catholic Church’s child protection unit tipped police off about an initial allegation about Denham in April.
Acting Police Commander Gary O’Dell this morning hinted there would be further arrests.
“We’re certainly looking at a number of further allegations and making inquires in relation to that,” he said.
“The police have been working with a number of victims and if there are any others out there, we would certainly encourage them to come forward.”
The Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese says it will continue to cooperate with the police investigation.
Bible competition will name one church as Wichita’s ‘first’
[Source]:
Fr. Catherine Caimano of St. John’s Episcopal Church, left, playfully wrestles Rev. Cathy Northrup of First Presbyterian Church. The two churches claim they are the oldest in the city and on Friday will have the “First Annual First Church in Wichita Bible Showdown,” a Bible trivia competition between the two churches where the winner will get to claim the first church title for a year. In the background are Katie Pott, a historian with St. John’s, and Gary Huffman, a historian with First Presbyterian.
Bible competition will name one church ‘first’
Let’s get ready to ruuuuumble… religion style! In this corner, from the downtown Wichita corner of Third and Topeka, the house of worship that claims it is the city’s first church: St. John’s Episcopal Church.
And in the other corner, from Broadway, near Central, the one that claims it is the city’s first church: First Presbyterian Church.
Tonight, the two churches will settle their “dispute” in what they’re calling the First Annual First Church in Wichita Bible Bowl.
Each church will have a team — made up of the pastors and four church members — and will answer Bible trivia questions.
The winning team will get a trophy, and perhaps more importantly, the right to claim for the next year that they are the first church in Wichita.
“I’ve tried to select questions from a range of Bible knowledge, from the beginner to probably an advanced student of the Bible,” said Pastor Dan Hawn, of downtown Wichita’s First Baptist Church. He will moderate the contest, which will be held at St. John’s.
The background to the battle goes back to last year, when the Rev. Catherine A. Caimano, rector at St. John’s, shared in an article in The Eagle her goals for the upcoming year.
Among them: “I want us to look again at our rich history as the first church in Wichita, our reputation for outreach and community care, and to give new energy and vision to both as we start this new year.”
Her good friend, the Rev. Cathy Northrup, pastor of First Presbyterian, joked with her about that statement.
“I believe Cathie misspoke,” Northrup said.
First Presbyterian, Northrup said, is actually the first, with a charter date of March 13, 1870. St. John’s charter date is Oct. 4, 1870, according to its archivist, Katie Pott.
But although First Presbyterian had the earlier charter, Pott said St. John’s had the first church building — a sod-roof structure made of cottonwood slabs at Main and Central.
As Northrup and Caimano were having coffee one morning — as they frequently do — they thought of the idea of a Bible trivia contest.
They checked it out with their members, and settled on the format. They asked Hawn to come up with the questions.
Hawn, who used to referee hockey, said he might even wear his referee shirt.
Although there’s a title and trophy on the line, the Bible Bowl is all in fun. The two churches will start their event at 6 p.m. with a potluck meal.
The event is also part of an ongoing effort among downtown churches to come together more often — for ministry and fellowship.
For example, many of the downtown churches coordinate their efforts and resources to serve the city’s homeless.
“I think we’re really becoming more intentional about having our downtown churches seek mission together, share our resources and have fellowship,” Caimano said. “We realize that… downtown churches make a strong community in downtown Wichita.”
Thou shall not: Decree on Child Protection
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has issued a detailed list of inappropriate behaviors for priests, saying they should not kiss, tickle or wrestle children. The archdiocese’s Decree on Child Protection also prohibits bear hugs, lap-sitting and piggyback rides. But it says priests may still shake children’s hands, pat them on the back and give high-fives.
– Associated Press
— The Archdiocese of Boston, notorious in the past decade as the most pedophilic and scandal-plagued church of all – having paid out more than $137 million to more than 1,000 victims of sexual abuse by its priests – has quietly issued strict new guidelines for all its remaining pastors.
The Decree on Creepy Overlong Stares states that, in the rare instances when a Boston-area priest must look straight into the eyes of a child, said pastor must first put on a pair of specially designed sunglasses, the lenses of which have been coated in a compound harvested from the sweat glands of ascetic eunuchs who live deep in the Catacombs of Agony, just beneath Vatican City. The active ingredient of the special compound reportedly dims the bright light of a child’s tantalizing innocence, thus making the youth appear just as old and soiled and sinful as everyone else.
— Taking a cue from Mormon tradition, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has issued a new Dictum on Appropriate Underclothing, which commands that all its priests must wear, as a means to “thwart all untoward urges,” an elaborate, tight-fitting, leather harness system involving multiple snaps, metal rings, nickel-plated buckles and “cool whippy things.”
When informed by a reporter that this kind of rigging is actually considered a delightful sadomasochistic fetish favored in the Castro district and also in many Senate chambers and much of rural Texas, a representative of the archdiocese replied, “Bzzbzzbzz! What’s that? I’m sorry, you’re breaking up. I must be in a tunnel or something. Can you call back later?” as much giggling was heard in the background.
— As an addendum to the Vatican’s recent decision to update its master list of sins to include drug use, extreme wealth, abusing the environment and rolling around joyfully in warm pools of vodka and Astroglide amid the soft sighs of coy wood nymphs, Bishop Antonio Gianferrari of the Apostolic Penitentiary has issued a decree under which all priests of Rome must undergo a brief medical procedure in which a tiny electrical device is implanted just beneath the foreskin.
The microsensor, known as God’s Little Cherub, measures holy heart rate, heaviness of breathing and blood flow to the penis and is designed to deliver an electric shock ranging from “mild” to “Cazzo!” when the priest comes into proximity with nubile flesh. The diode also reportedly shoots an electrical impulse deep into the earth, triggering Prince’s 1987 megahit “U Got the Look” to play on Satan’s iPod.
— In an unusual move, the New York Archdiocese – famous for recently publishing an anti-pedophile coloring book for children in which smiling priests are depicted as being blocked from coming anywhere near totally cute altar boys by teams of female angels who presumably have said priests’ naughty bits in a vice – has officially barred all tantalizing sexual beings from coming within a six-block radius of church property during the priests’ most vulnerable hours.
This period, known as the Dark Hour of the Multiple Heavy Sighs, normally falls somewhere after supper but just before “America’s Next Top Model” and is apparently a time when many priests can be found alone in the back of the church, flipping through back issues of Martha Stewart Living and cruising MySpace as they question their life choices and wonder what it would’ve been like to have followed their original dream of moving to Costa Rica and opening a vegan cafe/pot farm and dating young beautiful surfer boys with long wavy hair.
— “We’re bringing back daily mortification,” said a gleeful Rev. Jonathan Percival of the Archdiocese of Greater Oklahoma, referring to general all-around suffering, sometimes, but not always, including the violent daily lashing of oneself with a large barbed whip, “like that albino guy in ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ ”
Reminded by the same reporter from the above item that self-flagellation with large leather whips is also often considered a big, fat turn-on for millions of fetishists worldwide, the priest blinked a few times, turned a very bright color of crimson and began shuddering all over in what appeared to be some sort of rapturous delight. And then he fainted.
— “Here, at Opus Dei, despite all the rumors, we are much less interested in the sewing of painful spikes into the insides of your underwear, and far more interested in leveraged buyouts and carefully planned upticks in shareholder valuation,” said the Rev. Lewis Straithairn, while stroking the hissing, hairless cat on his lap.
“In other words, what people don’t know is we turn our adherents into devout, hard-nosed businesspersons, placing them in the highest positions of power in large corporations, where they toil deep into the night in the name of Jesus, preparing briefings and presentations and financial reports.
“Naturally, turning anyone into a cold corporate drone in the name of God quickly defeats all sexual urges, as it effortlessly annihilates the soul and replaces it with this chalky gray powder that looks like scorched flowers and tastes like sadness.”
— “Dude, don’t get me wrong, Maiden is completely awesome and old Motorhead blows my mind. Hell, even early Def Leppard totally rocks. But there is simply no comparison to the masters of all British metal, you know?” gushed paunchy computer programmer and World of Warcraft fanatic Todd Freebury, 42, of Modesto.
“I mean, have you heard ‘Hell Bent for Leather’ lately? Or ‘Screaming for Vengeance’? And the notes Halford hits on ‘Beyond the Realms of Death’ from ‘Stained Class’ way back in ’78 are positively epic,” Freebury continued excitedly, before slamming the last of his Coors Light and staggering into the OfficeMax Arena for a concert by the famed British heavy metal band Judas Priest.
“Priest Rules!” he yelled, apparently appearing in this column by charming accident. “Priest rules! Priest rules! Priest rules!”
Police say pastor moved wife’s body, impregnated daughter
Investigators testifying in Hopkins’ preliminary hearing also stated that one of the family’s daughters — the same daughter who turned Hopkins in — is five months pregnant and claims Hopkins is the father. She told police that Hopkins:
• Convinced her to have sex with him eight years ago by citing Old Testament passages.
• Killed her mother, Arletha, by strangulation four years ago during an argument.
• Hid the woman’s body in the woods, later moving it to church property in Clarke County. When the ground there began to crack, Hopkins made the daughter help him move her mother’s body to the freezer in the family’s home in Mobile.
Evangelism Exposed 