Ruth Gledhill of the TimesOnline.UK reported this week that the Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland published the pamphlet The Gift in Scripture, in which they warn their five million worshippers "that they should not expect 'total accuracy' from the Bible."
“We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they say.
I find their reasoning understandable and acceptable. Consider these paragraphs:
The document is timely, coming as it does amid the rise of the religious Right, in particular in the US.
Some Christians want a literal interpretation of the story of creation, as told in Genesis, taught alongside Darwin’s theory of evolution in schools, believing “intelligent design” to be an equally plausible theory of how the world began.
But the first 11 chapters of Genesis, in which two different and at times conflicting stories of creation are told, are among those that this country’s Catholic bishops insist cannot be “historical”. At most, they say, they may contain “historical traces”....
In the document, the bishops acknowledge their debt to biblical scholars. They say the Bible must be approached in the knowledge that it is “God’s word expressed in human language” and that proper acknowledgement should be given both to the word of God and its human dimensions....
The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: “We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.”
The bishops seem to be speaking truth to the power control occurring in the US; they are calling it for what it is, fundamentalism. Consider these paragraphs:
[The bishops] go on to condemn fundamentalism for its “intransigent intolerance” and to warn of “significant dangers” involved in a fundamentalist approach.
“Such an approach is dangerous, for example, when people of one nation or group see in the Bible a mandate for their own superiority, and even consider themselves permitted by the Bible to use violence against others.”
Of the notorious anti-Jewish curse in Matthew 27:25, “His blood be on us and on our children”, a passage used to justify centuries of anti-Semitism, the bishops say these and other words must never be used again as a pretext to treat Jewish people with contempt. Describing this passage as an example of dramatic exaggeration, the bishops say they have had “tragic consequences” in encouraging hatred and persecution. “The attitudes and language of first-century quarrels between Jews and Jewish Christians should never again be emulated in relations between Jews and Christians.”
As examples of passages not to be taken literally, the bishops cite the early chapters of Genesis, comparing them with early creation legends from other cultures, especially from the ancient East. The bishops say it is clear that the primary purpose of these chapters was to provide religious teaching and that they could not be described as historical writing....
The bishops say: “Such symbolic language must be respected for what it is, and is not to be interpreted literally. We should not expect to discover in this book details about the end of the world, about how many will be saved and about when the end will come.”
What is my opinion on this? Thank goodness that these bishops have broached the topic of the rise of fundamentalism and the literal interpretation of Genesis. Two points: 1) The teaching of creationism and Intelligent Design should be taught in institute, seminary, or bible classes held before or after school. 2) If parents and Republicans feel public school is too secular, why don't they create private Christian schools that they can send their children to?
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