Whose Jesus? Indeed

Extreme Catholic blogs an article by Matt Grills on "Cliff" Dean's faith:

Howard Dean has joined that elite pool of politicians who use Jesus as a prop on the presidential campaign trail....

“My father used to tell us how much strength he got from religion, but we didn’t have Bible readings,” he told the Boston Globe. “There are traditions where people do that. We didn’t.”

Um, Howard, reading Scripture isn’t considered “tradition” for most Christians. It’s the best and only way to learn about God, about Jesus and about living a holy life. Even more important to Christians than baptism and communion are the Holy Scriptures. It’s the only written record we have of Jesus and his teachings. The first thing a new Christian is handed is a Bible. It is muy importante....

I have no doubt Howard Dean believes in Jesus. But whose Jesus?

Matt Grills is a writer and conservative activist living in Indianapolis. Contact him at darthgrills@hotmail.com.

Reading the Bible is most certainly not "the best and only way to learn about God, about Jesus and about living a holy life". First, the Church — the Catholic Church — was converting thousands and tens of thousands to the new Way long before the first word of the New Testament was put to parchment, and She continues to do that to this very day. Second, by Grill's reckoning, the illiterate and those into whose language the Bible hasn't been translated are incapable of learning about God, Jesus, and a holy life.

God gave the human race both a teacher and a text: the Church and the Bible. He meant them to go together: he didn't make the latter to be used out of the context of the history, liturgy, and authority of the former.

Moreover, didn't Jesus say, Unless you read the Bible you shall have no life in you? Oh. Wait. No. He didn't. He said, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, you shall have no life in you. It seems to me, then, that Grill's understanding of certain Christian fundamentals is quite different from that of the Lord Jesus. That's why the first thing a new Protestant is handed is a Bible; the first thing a new Catholic receives is the sacraments of initiation. Which, by the way, is how it was done for 1,500 years: Grill's understanding of Christianity was not held by anybody on the face of the Earth before the sixteenth century.

BTW, I read the Bible every day, and it's the Bible that made me Catholic.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 01/09/04 08:33:23 AM
Categorized as Religious.