Judaism, Christianity, Islam; the Torah, Bible, Qur'an, etc.
Part 2 of 2: Editing, changing, reinterpreting,
and/or ignoring passages in holy books in
order to
modify beliefs & alter behaviors:
Is change of scripture possible?Changing sacred literature in order to make the teaching
more up-to-date and ethical may be extremely difficult, but, not necessarily
impossible. Consider, for example:  |
The
Council of Nicaea in 325 CE: The followers of the Egyptian theologian Athanasius
claimed that Christ and God were of the same essence, while the followers of Arius,
a priest from Alexandria, believed that Christ was essentially
inferior to God. These two approaches triggered endless debate in the Christian
communities, with the two sides rather evenly matched. A vote was taken and Arius lost
-- largely due to the heavy handed interference by the Roman Emperor. The Church sanctioned the
theology of Athanasius and condemned the view of Arius as heresy. The fact that
an issue of such magnitude could be decided by
casting a ballot gives us hope that lesser problems could be solved as well,
once we set aside our biases.
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History records many gradual changes in Christian beliefs and practices
in the direction of "justice and liberty for all." Typically, these changes start
with those denominations most concerned with human rights, and gradually
work their way through the remaining denominations. Often this happens from the most liberal
faith group to
the most conservative.
Examples are:
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The movement to abolish human slavery in
the 19th century. This started with the Mennonites and Quakers in the
late 17th century and eventually permeated throughout Christianity, except for a
very few radical denominations who still advocate the practice.
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The gradual acceptance of women as having status
equal to men. This started with the theological debate in the late 19th
century to decide whether women actually had souls. The theologians eventually decided that
they did. Eventually, women obtained the vote in North America. They
have achieved near equality with men in most western countries, except
for some combat positions in the Armed Forces and within some conservative religious groups.
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The gradual granting of equal rights to sexual minorities. This
movement was initially promoted by gays, lesbians, bisexuals,
secularists, and liberal religious groups. Some mainline denominations
are currently debating their ordination and same-sex marriage policies. The
Episcopal Church, USA came close to a schism
over these matters. Most conservative denominations have yet to initiate
the debate.
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With little public acknowledgment, many Christian denominations have
abandoned the idea of Hell as a place of
eternal torture for people guilty of thought crimes -- i.e. those individuals
who do not accept certain Christian beliefs or practices. Some faith
groups have abandoned the idea of Hell completely; others are now
describing it as a place of isolation from God where unbelievers will
spend eternity. The Bible's description of the worms, unbearable thirst,
flogging, and extreme heat of Hell are rarely mentioned in modern sermons.
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The Bible lists many dozens of "crimes" that were punishable by
execution ranging from murder, eating leavened
bread during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a male engaging in
sexual activity with a woman who is menstruating, teaching people about another
religion, blasphemy, to working on Saturday, etc. Over many centuries,
predominately Christian countries gradually reduced the list of capital
crimes to one: aggravated murder. Almost all democracies, with the notable
exception of the United States, have now abandoned executions entirely.
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Sponsored link.
The Jefferson Bible:Creating an edited Bible may sound like a radical concept. However, it is
feasible, because it has already partly been done. In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson
(1743 - 1826) created an abbreviated version of the Gospels. It is now called
the "Jefferson Bible" and has remained in print since the first edition was published. Marilyn Mellowes wrote:
"Thomas Jefferson was frustrated. It was not the burdens of office that
bothered him. It was his Bible."
"Jefferson was convinced that the authentic words of Jesus written in the
New Testament had been contaminated. Early Christians, overly eager to make
their religion appealing to the pagans, had obscured the words of Jesus with
the philosophy of the ancient Greeks and the teachings of Plato. These
"Platonists" had thoroughly muddled Jesus' original message. Jefferson
assured his friend and rival, John Adams, that the authentic words of Jesus
were still there. The task, as he put it, was one of
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'abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is
buried, easily distinguished by its luster from the dross of his
biographers, and as separate from that as the diamond from the dung
hill'." 1,2
Jefferson told John Adams that he was rescuing the philosophy of Jesus and
the:
"pure principles which he taught ... [from the] artificial vestments in
which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into
various forms as instruments of riches and power for themselves." 3
The material that Jefferson described as "rubbish" that he removed from the
gospels included what he considered to be religious dogma, supernatural elements, and
miracles. He deleted passages dealing with the annunciation, the
virgin birth, appearance of the angels
to the shepherds, the wise men, the Christmas star, Jesus'
resurrection and ascension, etc. What is left makes
interesting reading. 4 The precedent has been established. An edited Bible would not be a difficult
task, particularly in the age of word processors. 
Sponsored link:
Alternative approaches:If organized religions are intransigent and unwilling to cooperate in removing intolerant
passages from their scriptures, our only option may be to alleviate the
problem without really solving it. There are a few possibilities: |
The widespread dissemination of information about individual religions
is important. People
are often intolerant because of ignorance. Improved knowledge
of the religious beliefs and practices of others often promote tolerance.
Fortunately, the Internet contains an enormous amount of freely available information on
religion. 5,6
| | Attitudes learned in childhood have a lasting and profound influence
upon a person's entire approach to life. The educational systems can actively
teach tolerance and promote understanding that will carry over into
adulthood. This may prove difficult to achieve in parochial schools.
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People of different faiths can appreciation diverse religious traditions
interacting in a spirit of friendliness and
fellowship.
There are many ways in which to improve the contact between members of various
religions. One technique is to organize inter-religious discussions as the Baha'i faith does.
Another is to organize local groups that promote interfaith
dialogue. 7,8
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A particularly effective method to promote religious tolerance is for
individual faith groups to cooperate on
specific projects. For example,
there are many multi-faith groups working on environmental protection,
each religion contributing to the total effort:
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The National Religious Partnership for the Environment is composed of four major
religious organizations in the U.S.: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,
the National Council of Churches of Christ, the Coalition of Environment and
Jewish Life, and the Evangelical Environmental Network. See:
http://www.nrpe.org/
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The United Religions Initiative (URI) considers care for the earth central to its
activities. It unites more than 26,000 members of different religious traditions in
fifty countries. Each group must have at least seven members from at least three
different religious, spiritual, or indigenous traditions. See:
http://environment.harvard.edu/
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The Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign is part of the Washington
Association of Churches. They are involved with native Americans. See:
http://www.thewac.org/
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The Partners for Environmental Quality, Inc. is composed of members of 15
diverse religious communities including Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Jainism,
and Judaism. It collaborates with state, national and international
environmental organizations.
http://www.environment.harvard.edu/
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The Interfaith Coalition for the Environment is an American organization open to
all spiritual traditions. See:
http://www.interfaith-coalition-for-the-environment.org/
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The Forum on Religion and Ecology is an inter-religious initiative engaged in
scholarly dialogue on the environment. See:
http://environment.harvard.edu/
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The 'Religions of the World and Ecology' series at Harvard Divinity school
lasted over 3 years. There were 10 conferences, attended by 800 scholars,
leaders and environmental specialist from different religions. A book series has
been published covering Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Daoism, Hinduism,
Indigenous Traditions, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, and Shinto.
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Also, environmental groups such as the WorldWildlife Fund have sponsored
inter-religious meetings.
http://www.futurist.com/
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Individuals, local groups, national groups and international
organizations can improve mutual religious tolerance to some degree. However, without full cooperation of the
main world
religions, it will be an uphill struggle to achieve even a modest improvement in
reducing the level of intolerance and violence. It
is not sufficient to have only the Bah'ai, the Unitarian Universalists, the Quakers, the far-Eastern religions,
and other small faith groups active in promoting peace and harmony. All of Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam are needed to play their part as well.
References used: The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
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Marilyn Mellowes, "Thomas Jefferson and his Bible," Frontline
program, PBS, at: http://www.pbs.org/
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The basic text of the Jefferson Bible is available in a Word file at: http://www.angelfire.com and in a plain text file suitable for Wordpad at: http://www.angelfire.com/
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Eyler Coates, Sr., "The Jefferson Bible," at: http://www.angelfire.com/
-
 Thomas Jefferson, "The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth," Wilder Publications, (2009). Available in Kindle format for $0.80, Paperback for $4.99, Hardcover for $7.89. and Audiobook for #10.95. Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store.
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Yahoo! directory of faiths and practices at: http://dir.yahoo.com/
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Google directory on religious tolerance, at: http://www.google.com/
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A list of mostly local "North American Interfaith Organizations and
Activities" is maintained at: http://www.pluralism.org/ This is a PDF file. A PDF reader can be obtained free from:
-
Women Transcending Boundaries publishes an essay "Tips on Starting a
Group" at: http://www.wtb.org/
Site navigation:
... And other paths too numerous to list
Copyright © 2006
by Vladimir Tomek
Original publishing date: 2006-SEP-27
Latest update on: 2015-FEB-16
Author. Vladimir Tomek, supplemented by contributions by B.A. Robinson 
Sponsored link
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