Wednesday, August 25, 2004
I keep hearing on our local news that a county nearby has improved its sex offender database to make it easier to search in a variety of methods. It occurs to me that, much like the Internet, a sex offender database actually makes it easier for these creeps to find each other. I haven't actually tried to use these sex offender laws to look up my own neighborhood... perhaps I should, but nothing beats keeping your own eyes on your own kids.
On another subject, I wrote previously that our RCIA instructors told us that some of our favorite Old Testament stories are myths, meant to transfer knowledge and ideas... kind of like the parables of Jesus. This bothered some of the older members of our group and, in fact, we have come back to that issue several times for clarification. An email I received (thanks!) asked that I point out you can be a Catholic and still believe that the Old Testament stories are literally true. Our teachers said that people who spend their lives studying the Bible believe these stories to be myths, but their teaching doesn't mean that we, as Catholics, must believe exactly what they believe about stories like Jonah and the Whale, or Moses and the Red Sea. One of the older members of our group, in fact, has continually returned to the statement one of our teachers made, that God is neither male nor female. He couldn't let it go since all his life, God was a man... Jesus was a man, God was his father, not his mother. Finally, our teacher said, "How about if we say that God is both male and female..." and then, relenting, "It's OK to believe how you want."
Which is what my emailer points out is the Catholic position: "As long as you believe that Adam and Eve were the first humans with souls, imparted by God, and that they sinned, you can believe or not believe the literalness of the stories that surround the Old Testament."
On another subject, I wrote previously that our RCIA instructors told us that some of our favorite Old Testament stories are myths, meant to transfer knowledge and ideas... kind of like the parables of Jesus. This bothered some of the older members of our group and, in fact, we have come back to that issue several times for clarification. An email I received (thanks!) asked that I point out you can be a Catholic and still believe that the Old Testament stories are literally true. Our teachers said that people who spend their lives studying the Bible believe these stories to be myths, but their teaching doesn't mean that we, as Catholics, must believe exactly what they believe about stories like Jonah and the Whale, or Moses and the Red Sea. One of the older members of our group, in fact, has continually returned to the statement one of our teachers made, that God is neither male nor female. He couldn't let it go since all his life, God was a man... Jesus was a man, God was his father, not his mother. Finally, our teacher said, "How about if we say that God is both male and female..." and then, relenting, "It's OK to believe how you want."
Which is what my emailer points out is the Catholic position: "As long as you believe that Adam and Eve were the first humans with souls, imparted by God, and that they sinned, you can believe or not believe the literalness of the stories that surround the Old Testament."
