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đăng ngày 28 tháng 3, 2008
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Chương I:
1. Avro Manhattan, Catholic Imperialism and
World Freedom, pp. 341 - 365: Since its inception in the Far East,
Christianity, having appeared in the apparel of religion, has always
emerged as a political force at the service of Western individuals and
nations. Protestantism is as guilty as Catholicism. Like the Catholic, so
also the Protestan missionaries were invariably preceded or followed by
traders, gun-boats, or military expeditions. Political Protestantism,
however, although guilty, cannot be put on a par with Catholicism. The
damage caused by political Catholicism in Asia has been incommensurably
greater than anything done by all the other Christian Churches put together.
2. Hans Kung,
Christianity, p. 783: Without peace between the religions, war
between the civilizations. No peace among the religions without dialogue
between the religions. No dialogue between the religions without
investigation of the foundations of the religions.
3. Madalyn
O’Hair, All The Questions You Ever Wanted To Ask American Atheists,
back cover: The basic premise of Christianity is intolerance. The Christian
cannot just have his belief and permit everyone else to have theirs. Jesus
Christ demanded that the Christian convert and this has caused more grief to
mankind than any other religion. The old pagan gods lived side by side.
But when Christianity came with its exclusivism, based on the first of the
Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt have no other God before me," the killing
began.
4. Ernie
Bringas, Going by the Book: Past and Present Tragedies of Biblical
Authority, p. 18: Christianity has left an appalling trail of misery
and death as recorded in the bloodstained pages of history. And the cruel,
grotesque events they record are prime examples of misguided
faith, perpetrated under the delusion (sometimes pretext) of divine
guidance.
5. Hans Kung,
Does God Exist? p. 615: It is impossible to understand the Christian
God without the Jewish, for the Jewish is in fact the Christian God.
6. James
Kavanaugh, The Birth of God, p. 72: The Old Testament rings with
fervor of a religious people. But it also rings with mythology, archaic and
superstitious ritual, narrownwss and national pride, cruelty and legalism...
It is the record of the unparalleled religious evolution of the Jews. But
it is not the "word of God". Nor is the New Testament. It cannot be
understood except through the eyes of Jewish history. The men who wrote it
were Jews, steeped in the law and traditions of their Jewish past. There is
hardly reason for believing that God spoke to them directly; there is every
reason for believing that they merely reacted as religious writers to the
life and teachings of Christ, to the religious needs of their own times, to
the problems they faced within their own religious communities.
7. Anene
Obianyido, Christ or Devil? The Corrupt Face of Christianity in Africa,
p. 17: To discuss the origin of Christianity, one of course has to start
with the Jews and Judaism, the faith from which Christ broke away and was
punished as a result.
8. James
Kavanaugh, A Modern Priest Looks At His Outdated Church, p. 6: Our
theology, however, has become a scholar's game. It is a code of rules
accumulated in the petty wars of religious bitterness. It is a tale of
tired truths, which only serve to rob man of personal responsibility and
reduce him to the listlessness of a frightened slave. Theology took away
man's mind and left him memorized words... This is the theology I learned
and transmitted in every confession I heard, every class I taught, every
sermon I gave to the guilt-infected flock.
9. William
Harwood, Mythology's Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus, p. 16: One by
one the various books of the bible were discovered to contain errors of
fact; inaccurate guesses; rationalizations; prophecies ex-post-facto,
usually combined with prophecies of the future that proved
inaccurate; and unmistakable, deliberate lies. Had this discovery been
allowed to reach general public, Judeo-Christian mythology would have
suffered a blow from which it could not have hoped to recover. Facing
elimination, the current Pope appointed his own historians to examine the
secular historians' conclusions and find the flaw in their evidence that he
believed must be there. The outcome was that the Papal historians confirmed
that their bible really was falsifiable fantasy. They presented the Pope
with their reports and, when he promptly suppressed them, they all ceased to
be Catholics. So the Pope ordered his propaganda machine to invent an
alternative methodology to combat that of the historians, a methodology
created for the specific purpose of reaching the conclusion that the
Judeo-Christian bible is nonfiction, no matter how severely the evidence had
to be distorted in order to achieve that objective. That methodology was
'theology'.. Such was the power of the world's theocracies that, despite the
publication of thousands of scholarly books and articles refuting every part
of the Judeo-Christian bible, to this day the existence of unchallengeable
proof that the bible is a work of fiction is unknown to ninety percent of
the population of Christian-dominated societies.
10. David
Voas, The Bad News Bible: The New Testament, Introduction: Theology,
once queen of the sciences, now seems merely queen of the cloisters, still
gossiping about the same old stories long after the choir boys have grown up
and moved on. It's a shame... Granted, theology - the study of God -
suffers from the suspicion that it has no subject, or at least none we can
study. It is the only field with experts who don't know what they are
talking about. Their subject matter being inaccessible, theologians must
resort to the odd couple of imagination and authority... Christian thinkers
now have the job of showing that scripture makes sense, is consistent, and
appears morally defensible. This can be difficult.
11. John E.
Remsburg, False Claims, p. 3: Among the intelligent classes of Europe
and America, Christian theology is practically dead.
12. John
Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, p. 99: A savior
who restores us to our prefallen status is therefore pre-Darwinian
superstition and post-Darwinian nonsense.
13. Trịnh
Xuân Thuận, The Birth of the Universe, p. 120: The primates evolved
some 20 million years ago, and about 2 million years ago the first
representatives of Homo Sapiens trod the earth.
14. Frederick
Heese Eaton, Scandalous Saints, pp. 63-81: According to the Bible
tale, the Egyptians refused to let the Jews leave Egypt. However, this is
unreasonable in light of the facts. The Egyptians were afraid of the Jews
who out numbered them. Naturally they would have been delighted if the
Israelites would leave their country (Exodus 1:9,10). What Saint Moses
was undoubtedly trying to do was to persuade Pharaoh to ease up on the hard
labor he required of the Jews. They were not anxious to leave Egypt. The
Nile delta was by far the best cattle grazing land in that part of the
world, and the Israelites were unwilling to leave it. Their cattle thrived
there, and the Jews multiplied and grew rich. Even after the Hebrews left
Egypt later on, they longed to return (Numbers 14:4).. However, when Pharaoh
refused to ease their burdens, what could Moses tell his people? That he
was a failure? No political leader wants to do that; and political leader
Moses was. He was acting as the head of the Israelite nation. So, rather
than admit he was a failure, he turned the story around and claimed that
Pharaoh refused to let the Jews leave Egypt. Next in his bag of tricks,
Moses persuaded his people that now he would perform a series of plagues
upon the Egyptians which would force Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave
Egypt. This setting up a straw man and then knocking him down is an old
trick among politicians to divert their followers from seeing the facts.
Chương II:
1. John
Dollison, Pope-Pourri, p. 174: We should always be disposed to
believe that which appears white is really black, if the hierarchy of the
Church so decides.
2. James
Kavanaugh, God Lives: From Religious Fear To Spiritual Freedom,
39-40: I found it hard to believe that in the age of space technology a
religious body could be so out of touch as to believe such a mythological
penalty could have any meaning left for man.
...Excommunication had for centuries been authority's way of playing God.
It was the inhuman and unchristian denial of man's freedom of conscience.
But most of all it had been a deeply frigtened authority's frantic effort to
dominate and control men and woman rather than to direct them toward a free
and mature love. Excommunication attempted to turn the religious experience
into a boot camp where the officer in charge aspires to build loyal robots
by smothering them with confinement and indignity. Perhaps such methods
might have had meaning in preparing man for combat. They are only childish
and dishonest in dealing with a man or woman's relationship with God, but
incredulously they still exist.
3. John Shelby
Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, p. 4: The words of the
Apostles' Creed, and its later expansion known as the Nicene Creed, were
fashioned inside a worldview that no longer exists. Indeed, it is quite
alien to the world in which I live. The way reality was perceived when the
Christian creeds were formulated has been obliterated by the expansion of
knowledge..
4. John
Dollison, Pope-Pourri, p. 106: The woman, together with her own
husband, is the image of God..., but when she is referred to separately..the
woman alone, then she is not the image of God, but as regards the man alone,
he is the image of God.
5. Ibid.:
Woman is the gate of the Devil, the way of evil, the sting of the scorpion,
in a word, a dangerous thing.
6. Ibid.:
Among savage beasts none is found so harmful as a woman
7. Ibid.:
When you see a woman, consider that you face not a human being, but the
devil himself. The woman's voice is the hiss of the snake.
8 . Ruth
Hurmence Green, The Book of Ruth, p. 59: There wansn't one page of
this book that didn't offend me in some way. And when I encountered the
Bible's disdain for women, I very often almost pitched the good book across
the room. I vowed never to be seen in public with an unconcealed Bible in
my hands.
9. Joseph L
Daleiden, The Final Superstion, p. 82: Pope John Paul II believes in
many superstitions that modern Catholics find embarassing. Just recently he
gave three lessons in which he maintained that each person has no less than
three guardian angels and discussed the various roles of angels working
inside paradise. The pope shouted at the audience, "Watch out for the
devil!" He believes Satan appears in the shape of a lion, a snake, a
dragon, or a goat with horns.
10. John
Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism, p. 34: If only
human beings have souls, as the church has taught, one must be able to say
when humanity became human and was infused with its divine and eternal
soul. Without an instantaneous creation, that becomes quite problematic.
Is Homo Erectus human? Or is that human definition to be reserved only for
Homo Sapiens? If so, at what stage in the development of Homo Sapiens?
Language appears to be no more than 35 thousand to 50 thousand years old.
If biologists cannot pinpoint the moment at which Homo Erectus became Homo
Sapiens, except to say that it occurred over a period of 1.5 million years,
can theologians dare to be more specific?
11. G. W.
Foote, Bible Romances, p. 7: In every Christian country the masses
of the people are taught in childhood that God created the universe in six
days and rested on the seventh. Yet every student knows this is utterly
false, every man of science regards it as absurd, and the more educated
clergy, are beginning to explain it away. But they must retain the Creation
story in some sense or other, for two very strong reasons. First, it stands
at the very threshold of the Bible, and if it is a mere fiction it
enivitably throws discredit on all that follows. Secondly, it is
inseparably connected with the Story of the Fall. Both live or perish
together. And if the Fall is to be regarded as a myth, what becomes of
Christianity? The Christian scheme of salvation is unintelligible without
the antecedent doctrine of the Fall of Man. Without the Fall, and the
Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection are gigantic mistakes.
The
Creation Story, as we shall attempt to show, is incoherent,
self-contradictory, and absurd.
12. John
Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, p. 10: What is
heaven? Where is heaven? It is clear that in this ancient world the heaven
that God created was thought of as God's home, and it was located beyond the
sky. But those of us in this generation know that the sky is neither the
roof of the world nor the floor of heaven. So what are we referring to when
we assert that this almighty God created heaven? Are we talking about that
almost infinite universe that no one living knew anything about when the
Bible was written?
13. Colin
Cross, Who Was Jesus, Introduction: Viewed from a distance and
considered as a whole, Jesus of Nazareth is a reasonably tangible historical
figure. But too close an examination of any individual detail of him causes
him to blur...The reason for uncertainty about Jesus is the simplest
possible. It is just that there is no record at all, of any kind, about the
greater part of his life. He wrote no book. Even what he looked like is
unknown. There is not a word of independent proof that he ever even
existed. The records that do exist, the gospels, cover only a fraction of
Jesus' life and are written from a cultic and ritualistic point of view and
not as ordinary history. There are the gravest inconsistencies in the
gospel accounts and also many blatant improbabilities.
14. Ernie
Bringas, Going By The Book: Past And Present Tragedies of Biblical
Authority, p. 191: The consensus today is that the historical Jesus -
the words and actions of Jesus and the real events surrounding his life -
cannot be determined with precision. While we know how the author of a
Gospel regarded Jesus by what he reported (and how he reported it), it is
not always possible to penetrate beyond the Gospel portrayals of Jesus to
Jesus himself. We cannot determine with certainty what Gospel statements
about his life and career are genuine.
15. Thomas
Paine, The Age of Reason, Edited by Philip S. Foner, p. 571: The
history of Jesus Christ is contained in the four books ascribed to Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. The first chapter of Matthew begins with giving a
genealogy of Jesus Christ; and in the third chapter of Luke there is also
given a genealogy of Jesus Christ. Did those two agree, it would not prove
the genealogy to be true, because it might, nevertheless, be a fabrication;
but as they contradict each other in every particular, it proves falsehood
absolutely.
If Matthew
speaks truth, Luke speaks falsehood, and if Luke speaks truth, Matthew
speaks falsehood; and as there is no authority for believing one more than
the other, there is no authority for believing either; and if they cannot
be believed even in the very first thing they say and set out to prove, they
are not entitled to be believed in anything they say afterward...If they
cannot be believed in their account of Jesus' genealogy, how are we to
believe them when they tell us strange things such as Jesus was the Son of
God begotten by a ghost, and that an angel announced this in secret to his
mother?..
16. John
Shelby Spong, Rescuing The Bible From Fundamentalism, p. 21: There
are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrow-minded,
vindictive, and even hypocritical.
17. Ibid.,
pp. 21,24: Are we drawn to a Lord who would destroy a herd of pigs in order
to exorcise a demon? Are we impressed when the one we call Lord curses a
fig tree because it did not bear fruit out of season?...
A literal
Bible presents me with far more problems than assets. It offers me a God I
cannot respect, much less worship.
18. Reynolds
Price, Time, Dec. 6, 1999: The suggestion that Jesus' childhood may
have been dogged by the accusation of bastardy is perhaps implicit in his
townspeople's question in Mark 6, "Isn't this Mary's son?" To be called
one's mother son, as opposed to one's father's, was often an implication of
bastardy, or at least a sign that one's paternity was unknown, whether
divine or not. Early opponents likewise suggested that Mary had conceived
Jesus with a Roman soldier, Panthera. His childhood may well be clouded by
questions about his paternity.
19. John
Shelby Spong, Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus,
p. 41: He was a nobody, a child of Nazareth out of which nothing good was
thought to come. No one seemmed to know his father. He might well have
been illegitimate. Hints of that are scattered like undetected and
unexploded nuggets of dynamite in the landscape of the early Christian
tradition.
20. Uta
Ranke-Heinemann, Putting Away Childish Things, p. 49: In the legend
of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple, his parents fail to show any
understanding. When Jesus speaks of his heavenly Father, they don’t know
what he is talking about (Luke 2:50). This contradicts the story of the
annunciation, which in turn shows that Luke has woven together differents
strands of tradition. Among these the one on which this passge was based
knows nothing about the virgin birth.
21. Thomas
Paine, The Age of Reason, Ibid., pp. 466, 574: When I am told that
a woman called Virgin Mary, said, that she was with child without any
cohabitation with a man, and that her bethrothed husband, Joseph, said that
an angel told him so, I have a right to believe them or not; such a
circumstance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it;
but we have not even this - for neither Joseph nor Mary wrote any such
matter themselves; it is only reported by others that they said so - it is
hearsay upon hearsay, and I do not choose to rest my belief upon such
evidence.
It is,
however, not difficult to account for the credit that was given to the story
of Jesus Christ being the Son of God. He was born at a time when the
heathen mythology had prepared the people for the belief of such a story.
Almost all the extraordinary men that lived under the heathen mythology were
reputed to be the sons of some of their gods. It was not a new thing, at
that time, to believe a man to have been celestially begotten; the
intercourse of gods with women was then a matter of familiar opinion...
The story
of the angel announcing what the Church calls the Virgin Birth is not so
much as mentioned in the books ascribed to Mark and John; and is differently
related in Matthew and Luke. The former says the angel appeared to Joseph;
the latter says it was to Mary; but either Joseph or Mary was the worst
evidence that could have been thought of, for it was others that would have
testified for them, and not they for themselves.
Were any
girl that is now with child to say, and even to swear it, that she was
gotten with child by a ghost, and that an angel told her so, whould she be
believed? Certainly she would not. Why, then, are we to believe the same
thing of another girl, whom we never saw, told by nobody knows who, nor
when, nor where?
22. John
Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, p.12: Certainly if
that phrase is to be understood literally, it violates everything we know
about biology. Do we not yet recognize that all virgin birth tales - and
there have been many in human history - are legendary? They are human
attempts to suggest that humanity alone did not have the ability to produce
a life like the one being described. All virgin birth stories, including
the ones about Jesus, were fulled discredited as biological truths by the
discovery of the existence of an egg cell. That discovery meant that the
woman could no longer regarded simply as passive receptacle for the seed of
the male, which is the implication of these narratives. Divinity thus could
no longer be said to enter her offspring as a divine gift without being
compromised by her own humanity. The woman from that moment on had to be
recognized as a cocreator, an equal genetic participant in the procreation
of every life. The primary assumption in the biblical story of the virgin
birth - namely, that Jesus' divine nature came to him directly from God
through his mother's impregnation by the Holy Spirit - is a hopeless sexist
idea born in a totally patriarchal world that denied the woman's
contribution to every new life. The story of Jesus' birth, when
literalized, is now seen to be filled with the stuff of legends. Yet
classical theology has placed the content of these legends into the basic
Christian creed and for most of the years of the Church's life has treated
these phrases as literally true. In our day, the advances in our knowledge
have rendered these phrases nonsensical whenever the assumption is made that
they describe some objective truth.
23. Uta
Ranke-Heinemann, Ibid., pp. 43-44: The birth of Jesus was not
supposed to imply any notion whatsoever of human generation. There was no
male contribution here, there was no human contribution at all. The making
of Jesus was to be exclusively God's creative work. comparable to the
creation of Adam from a lump of clay. A woman, however, is not a clump of
clay. The whole miraculous narrative of the virgin birth was composed at a
time when nothing was known of the female ovum..The story of the virgin
birth could be composed only at a time when the woman was thought to play a
wholly passive role. Until the discovery of the ovum, in 1827, theologians,
including Luke and Matthew, thought that women were nothing more than
something like the soil, the flower pot, the petri dish into which the man
placed the seed, out of which the child then grew. Such thinking was rooted
in Aristotelian biology, which viewed the woman as an empty vessel for the
masculine principle. Males did all the work of generation...
Thus,
following this ancient model, Matthew and Luke could think that if an eartly
father was excluded from the begetting of Jesus, the God alone would be the
active force. They had no idea that to generate a person, two equally
active partners were needed, so that even if the man was replaced by God,
God would still not be the only active principle..
Ever since
the discovery of the ovum - and with it of the woman's share in reproduction
- the traditional idea of the virgin birth as an image of God's lonely
creative action has become indefensible...
Thus
ignorance served as the foundation for the idea of a virgin birth from the
Holy Spirit in a sex-free domain. After the discovery of the ovum, any
further claim that Mary gave birth virginally reduces God's role to that of
a mere male substitute...
In
addition, we have to consider the following: In the case of a virginal
conception the first cell in Jesus' organism would have to be a female
cell. And if this female cell miraculously were to begin to divide without
the intervention of a man, so that a human being came into existence through
furthert cellular division, then such a virginal pregnancy must inevitably
issue in the birth of a female person.
24. Michael
Martin, The Case Against Christianity, pp. 107-109: What historical
evidence is there for the Virgin Birth of Jesus? The claim of the Virgin
Birth is only made in two of the four gospels and these accounts differ. As
I have already noted, in Matthew the news of the coming birth of Jesus is
conveyed to Joseph in a dream; in Luke, Mary is told directly by the angel
Gabriel. Furthermore, Matthew implies that when Jesus was born his parents
lived in Bethlehem and they left when King Herod began a search to find and
kill Jesus..
However, in
Luke Jesus’ parents traveled from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem for a
Roman census..
Indeed, it
seems likely that if there were two independent notifications of the Virgin
Birth, this would have been mentioned in at least one of the two gospels.
In addition, because of the ways in which Mary and Joseph were notified - by
an angel and through a dream - the announcements of the Virgin Birth are
unsubstantiated by anyone other than Mary and Joseph. In the case of the
story of Mary’s visitation by the angel Gabriel there could have been other
witnesses but there were not; Mary was alone. In the case of Joseph’s dream
there could not have been other witnesses since only the dreamer is a
“witness” to his or her dream. Consequently, we have no independent
confirmation of the witnesses to the two supernatural notifications...
In addition
to all the apparent contradictions, historical inaccuracies, and
implausibilities of Matthew and Luke, neither Mark nor John give any account
of Jesus’ birth. On the supposition that the doctrine of the Virgin birth
was a widely held belief among the earlier Christians this is remarkable.
In particular, why would Mark, the earliest written gospel, fail to mention
this doctrine if it was widely believed in the last part of the first
century? Indeed, why would John, according to many accounts the last
gospel, fail to mention it if it was widely held? Surely, the most likely
explanation is that Mark and John did not consider the Virgin Birth to
belong to a correct account of Jesus’ life. This surely detracts from the
plausibility of the Virgin Birth story.
25. Russell
Shorto, Gospel’s Truth, p. 198: Over centuries of incorporation into
Christian art, crucifixion has become highly stylized - a thing of beauty,
even - that it is difficult to imagine the true horror of it.. But the
reality was something else. Consider, first, the horror it meant in a
society where personal dignity - even a peasant’s dignity - was the highest
virtue. To be made a public spectacle - convicted of a crime, exposed
naked, and dying in agony - was punishment far beyond mere execution.
Then there
is the torture. It generally included being bound to a post and flogged,
either with a short whip consisting of several leather tongs beaded with
lead or bone tips, or with sticks. The victim was usually mounted to the
crossbar on the ground and it was then hoisted up and attached to the
upright. Nails were usually driven through the hands or wrists, and the
feet..
26. Foote, G.
W., Bible Romances, p. 203: Just as the twenty-fifth of December, as
the birthday of Jesus, is a perfect fiction, having been borrowed by the
Church from ancient Paganism, so the date of the Crucifixion is purely
arbitrary. If Jesus died at all he died on a particular day, which should
be a regular fixture in the calendar.. The anniversary of his death always
falls on a Friday. But it is sometimes in one month; and sometimes in
another, and is never on the same date two years running; which conclusively
proves that the death of “the Saviour” is a mythological occurrence. Why
else should its anniversary be determined by an astronomical calculation?
Why should it be the first Friday after the first full moon after the spring
equinox?
Another
aspect of this matter should be noted. “Good Friday” is a singular name for
this astronomically determined date. It is supposed to have been a day of
tragedy on Mount Calvary after the agony and blood sweat of the Garden of
Gethsemane. He who cried out “O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup
pass from me,” cried out still more bitterly, as he felt the cold shadow of
the wings of death hovering over him, “My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?” What a day to call Good Friday! To him it was Bad Friday or
Black Friday. Yet his followers regard it as the happiest incident in the
world’s history. He suffered that they might enjoy; he descended into hell
in order that they might ascend into heaven; and they look upon this fatal
day with gladness and rejoicing. So terribly vain and egoisticcal are human
beings, and so generally is religion the consecration of selfishness! And
of all the selfish religions in the world Christianity is the most selfish.
28. Lloyd M.
Graham, Deceptions and Myths of the Bible, pp. 463-468: What we
offer here is admittedly and intentionally a one-sided picture, the dark and
shameful side. Our reason for so presenting it is that millions of
misguided souls are painting the other side and holding it up to a credulous
world as the only side. We think both sides should be known, not only in
the interest of truth but also for those who are living in spiritual bondage
to a fraudulent authority. For these, a thousand years of crime and
corruption are glossed over with the statement, “There were a few bad
popes.” Were their informers honest they would admit there were a few good.
We have
spoken of the dishonesty of Catholic scholarship. Nowhere it is more
evident than in its whitewash of wicked popes. Their crimes were all done
by others and “unavoidable,” their burning of heretics, a “necessity of the
times,” their debaucheries, but “love of godd cheer.”. Contemporary records
completely refute these claims, and the records were not written by the
Church’s enemies, but mainly by its own historians, popes and cardinals:
Victor II, Pius II, Cardinal Baronius, Bishop Liutprand, Father Salvianus,
and historians, Milman, Gerbert, Burchard, Guicciardini, Vacandard, Draper,
and others. These are the authority for the dark and shameful side. What
we offer here is but a hop, skip and jump over some 1500 years, but
sufficient, we think, to disprove any claim to divine selection and
guidance.
During the
Dark Ages these divinely guided popes murdered one another at such a rate
there were ten in twelve years (891-903) and forty in little more than one
hundred. Sergius III was a wholesaler; according to Cardinal Baronius and
also Vulgarius, he murdered his two predecessors. In 708 Toto, a noble at
the head of a rabble following, had his brother apointed pope. This was
Constantine II whose eyes were put out by Christopher, his chief official.
Then Christopher and his son plotted against Pope Gregory for they too had
their eyes put out. The two nephews of Leo III, Pascal and Campulus,
themselves clerics, conspired to replace Leo and set a band of paid
assassins upon him as he rode through the streets. When the hirelings
failed, the two nephews dragged the pope into a monastery and complete the
work. Pure fiction, downright slander, you say. But no, it is from the
record of the papal biographer.
This was
the order of the day. Pope Leo the V was deposed by another Christopher,
who was in turn deposed and succeeded by the aforesaid criminal Sergius III,
who murdered his predecessors. At this time it was not the Holy Ghost that
selected the popes but what cardinal Baronius called scortas, whores. This
was the “rule of the courtesans,” sometimes called Pornocracy, or reign of
the whores. Among them was one Baronius called the “shameless whore,”
Theodora, and her equally shameless daughter Marozia. Both had sons by
Sergius III, and both put their illegitimates on the papal throne - John XI
and John XII. The first was imprisoned, the second “turned the Lateran
Palace into a brothel.” There was no crime he didn’t commit - murder,
perjury, adultery, incest with his two sisters, bleeding and castrating his
enemies, etc. He died, we are told, at the hand of an outraged husband.
According
to the record, Cardinal Francone had Benedict VI strangled, after which he
became Boniface VII, “a horrid monster surpassing all other mortals in
wickedness,” according to Gerbert. He was no worse however than Boniface
VIII.. Yes indeed! To gain his tiara he had the halfwit Celestine V
disposed of. He did not long enjoy his victory for soon he was driven out
by the Romans. Under a successor, Clement V, he was tried posthumously and
found guilty of every crime including pederasty and murder. And when
Clement died, his successor, John XXII, revealed that Clement had been so
very clement he had given his nephew the equivalent of five million dollars
of papal money. It was at this time the papal court was moved to Avignon,
and now St. Peter had two successors, one at Avignon and one at Rome. But
even this was not enough; there were at one time three - Grogory XII,
Alexander V, and John XXIII. Later, John XXIII was repudiated, the title
was annulled and recently assumed by the successor of Pius XII.
So corrupt
was the latter, Sigmund of Hungary called a council to investigate him. The
result was fifty-four articles described him as “wicked, irreverend,
unchaste, a liar, disobedient and infected with many vices.” As a cardinal
he had been “inhuman, unjust and cruel.” As pope he was “an oppressor of
the poor, persecutor of justice, pillar of the wicked, statue of the
simoniacs, addicted to magic, the dregs of vice..wholly given to sleep and
carnal desires, a mirror of infamy, a profound inventor of wickedness.” He
secured the Papacy by “violence and fraud and sold indulgences, benefices,
sacraments and bulls.” He practiced “sacrilege, adultery, murder, rape and
theft.”.. Some of these popes so outraged decency they were exiled. At
least two of them had their eyes and tongue cut out, then were dragged
through the streets tied to the tail of an ass. Still others were so
despised their corpses were exhumed and thrown into the Tiber. After
fourteen hundred years of Christianity morals had sunk so low that Pius II
tells us: “scarcely a prince in Italy had been born in wedlock.” A
statement as applicable to the princes of the church as of the states.
Bad as all
this was, the worst was yet to come - the Borgias, particularly Rodrigo. Of
all the wicked popes he deserves the crown. By bribing fifteen cardinals
with the equivalent of three million dollars he secured the election of one
of the worst men in history - himself, Alexander VI. Guicciardini, the
historian, describes him thus: “..private habits of the utmost obscenity, no
shame or sense of truth, no fidelity to his engagements, no religious
sentiments, insatiable avarice, unbridled ambition, cruelty beyond the
cruelty of barbarous races, burning desire to elevate his sons by any means:
of whom there were many, and among them one - not any less detestable than
his father.” This was the notorious Cesare Borgia who to gain a cardinalate
murdered his brother John, his sister’s husband, and two cardinals..
While still
a cardinal this rake and murderer turned his quarters in the Vatican into a
brothel. According to Burchard, the papal historian at the time, he
indulged in nightly revels in his rooms above the pope’s, and courtesans
“danced naked before the servants of the Lord and the Vicar of Christ.” And
his sister, Lucrezia, distributed prized to those who “had a carnal
intercourse with courtesans the largest number of times.” This is the
gaiety explained as “love of dood cheer.”
Such were
the Princes of the Church in those days. During the Middle Ages the College
of cardinals was as corrupt a body as could be found in all history.
Securing a cardinalate was but a matter of money and influence. Neither
character, learning nor aptitude played any part in it. Indeed boys of
fouteen and fifteen were sometimes invested with the office. Paul III
appointed two of his teen-age grand children to this high office.. Paul IV
made his nephew a cardinal, though, as he said, “his arm is dyed in blood to
the elbow.”
Yet these
were the men who, with the help of the Holy Ghost, selected the popes..
Now why
isn’t this disgraceful record known as well as that of the the good popes?
Why aren’t Catholics told it was such men as these that caused the
Reformation and not “that devil Luther?” Protestantism sprang not from
Luther exclusively but from centuries of protestation against the crime and
corruption of the Catholic Church. Satan Peter had outraged all Europe..
29. John
Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, pp. 16-17: This
creed concludes with a paragraph dedicated to the Holy Spirit, who was said
to have created the church at Pentecost and who, it is suggested, continues
to fill the church with “God presence”. First, we need to note that all of
these Pentecost symbols come out of the same three-tired skies into which
Jesus was said to have ascended. The assumption lying behind the story of
the sending of the Holy Spirit is that the earth is the center of the
universe and that onto it the heavenly gifts of the God who lives above the
sky can be poured. Second, the creed asserts that this spirit will issue in
the communion of saints, which will continually renew the “holy Catholic
church.” The church, throughout its history, has indeed had moments when it
certainly looked like saints living in communion. Many lives have been
enriched and transformed by their associations with Christian worship and
fellowship. But the church has also had in its history some rather dreadful
moments marked by such things as “holy wars”, “sacred crusades”,
inquisitions, inhumane anti-Semitism, and an overt, killing racism, sexism,
and homophobia. In these episodes incredible violence has been unleashed
upon both God’s people and God’s creation by those who counted themselves as
believers. These horrors have even been inflicted in the name of the God of
love. Where was the communion of saints during those episodes? What do we
do with this known history when we recite these words in this creed?
30. John
Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, p. 95: A human
father who would nail his son to a cross for any purpose would be arrested
for child abuse. Yet that continued to be said of God as if it made God
more holy and more worthy of worship.. I would choose to loathe rather than
to whorship a deity who required the sacrifice of his son..
Chương III:
1. Joseph
McCabe, The Truth About The Catholic Church, pp. 89-90: Recruits are
now sought at a very early age, and usually from the less educated
class...The Church now, in all countries, has a difficulty in securing the
proper type of recruits, and the theoretical qualifications have to be
considerably lowered. As a rule, the priesthood is recruited by the
adoption of young boys to whom ordination means promotion to a position and
prestige which their personal merits would not otherwise obtain for them.
This casts
the burden of their training almost entirely upon the Church, and their
education is generally very poor. Very few priests could read any Latin
author (except Ceasar) at sight, or make much sense of Horace, Tacitus, or
Juvenal. Of Greek they have, as a rule, received only an elementary
knowledge, which they soon forget. Of science, history, and philosophy, in
the modern sense, they, as a rule, know nothing.
Science is
taught in very few training-colleges for the clergy, and then only in the
most elementary form and for a very short time. History is represented only
by a few lessons, from Catholic writers, on Church history...
In
science and history I did not receive one single lesson in the whole
course of my training; and, as I said, my "philosophy" had as little
relation to modern philosophy as astrology has to astronomy.
The value
of the education given to me in the Church was made plain the moment I
returned to "the world"...I could not get a position as a teacher at ten
dollars a week. My friend Mr. Forbes, regretfully told me, after a short
examination, that my "education" was quite useless...Three of my colleagues
secretly left the Church and tried to earn their living. Each failed,
and had to return..The Church must have a high proportion of such men.
2. James
Kavanaugh, A Modern Priest Looks at His Outdated Church, pp. 20-21:
I studied four years after college until I was declared ready to be a
priest. My studies spoke seldom of doubts or opinions and most frequently
of blacks and whites.. In philosophy, for example, we could handle Berkeley,
Hume, and Kant in a single week... We memorized each thesis and definition
and proved that "reason" could only lead an honest man to faith. We were
the only honest men as we defended by "reason" all the moral teachings of
the Church. Catholic opposition to divorce and birth control, to freedom
of speech and thought, to mercy killing and adultery were all the obvious
conclusions of a "reason" unclouded by passion and pride. It did not seem
important that there were millions of "unreasonable" men...It was an
education without sympathy, a training without recourse. I heard what I
was supposed to hear, and said what the administration expected me to
say. Rebels were weeded out. Only the strong and legal-minded, or the
naive and passive, could last. Creativity was discouraged unless it
pursued the accepted patterns wich cautious minds approved.
"heresy" was a word which ended every argument, and "the Church teaches" was
the narrow outline of every debate. I was not educated, I was formed. I
was not encouraged to think, but trained to defend. I was not asked to
reflect, but to memorize.
...My
God! What have I become? You asked me to minister with the weakness of my
flesh, to serve the struggling sinner, and I have grown rigid and
comfortable in the service of myself. I am not "another Christ," I am not
even a man, I am only a prisoner, a synthetic paragon, a defender of the
tired past.
God! If I
am to be a priest, first lat me be a man. Do not let me hide behind my
collar, my titles, my false front. Do not make me give answers I do not
believe, nor mold men into impersonal and uncomplaining dolts. Let them
know my doubts from my own lips, and let them tell me honestly of theirs.
Let me not bind them with law and hell, nor frigten them with
tales of unexpected death...
3. Emmett
McLoughlin, American Culture and Catholic Schools, pp. 36 -37: I did
not learn to think. As the years of childhood slipped through a frustrated
adolescence (in the seminary) into the days that were supposed to be
those of manhood, my mind was molded in an intellectual pattern as
effectively as though it had been cast in concrete.
The closest
approach to science that I experienced in those 21 years was that a
non-laboratory course in elemental physics...Of the world's really great
literature, in 12 years I learned practically nothing. Its greatest lights
were locked in the prison of the Index of Forbidden Books.
In
short, I was not educated. I was merely endoctrinated. I
had achieved the level of the rigor mortis of intellectual mediocrity.
I had
become an automaton, a priest of sacred, half known rites as meaningless in
the efficacy as the chants of a Puerto Rican woodoo priest.
I was an
ecclesiastical technician trained to mold other young, pliable minds...
4. Joseph
McCabe, The Truth About The Catholic Church, p.70: The “sacrament”
is, of course, merely a part of the system which raises a priestly caste, to
their great advantage, above the common crowd. So it is with the sacrament
of “holy orders” or the ordination of the clergy. The ritual is a maze, a
stupendous collection of archaic prayers and mysic actions, to the
onlooker. It is supposed to be so potent that henceforward the priest can
order devils about, forgive sins, and turn bread into Christ. This your
Catholic neighbor literally believes.
5. Joseph
McCabe, The Truth About The Catholic Church, pp. 64-65: The
sacrament of baptism is for infants... For a very serious reason. Every
child of Adam has incurred the sin of Adam, and must pay the penalty. At
first it was drastically held that every man, woman, or child who had not
this stain "washed away" in the waters of baptism would burn in hell for
ever. That was too much even for medieval human nature, and the theologians
made a compromise...The unbaptized cannot enter heaven. The Church sticks
to that. But the innocent babes do not go to hell. They go into a sort of
dim modern extension of the underworld, and may even be happy there; but
they will never "see God", or see their parents again.
So the babe
is rushed to the church on the first Sunday afternoon after its birth. If
it caches a fatal cold, the parent must not grieve. It has gone straight to
heaven, absolutely spotless. The church, and often the water, are, however,
now warmed, and the weird ceremony proceeds...
You spit on
your finger, and daub the babe's mouth and eyes, and say to it "Ephetha".
You put some salt into its mouth; which it generally resents in the usual
manner and tone. You talk very severely, in bad Latin, to whatever devils
there may be in the pink morsel, and bid them to go - to Protestants or
anywhere. Then you pour a shell of water, very highly exorcized and
blessed, over its head (taking extreme care that it touches the skin, not
merely the hair, or the babe will never go to heaven); and the dreadful
sentence which overhung it, because a legendary being named Adam ate a
legendary apple in a legendary garden in the reign of King Khammurabi of
Babylon, is mercifully cancelled.
It is
difficult to discuss sacrament No. 1 seriouly. Spittle and devils, holy
oils and holy water, lighted candles and collecting boxes, are bad enough,
but the essential principle of the thing is intolerable. Even the
comparative damnation of the unbaptized, with "every modern convenience", is
too stupid for words. There are Catholic scholars now who regard Adam and
Eden as "a beautiful legend"...Yet it is still the emphatic and obligatory
teaching of the Church that every child born (except Mary - that is the real
meaning of the "Immaculate Conception") shares "the sin of Adam". and must
be put through the extraordinary performance I have described.)
6. Henri
Guillemin, Malheureuse Église: Qui dit "Rome" aujourd'hui désigne le
Vatican, le Saint-Siège, l'Église catholique dans son centre et son
gouvernement... Rome, pour les prophètes, c'est le symbole même des vices et
des infamies, et l'Apocalypse fait de la ville des Césars la "Bête" immonde,
"aux sept têtes et dix cornes", la "prostituée fameuse", "la mère des
abominations".
Cette Église,
qui aujourd'hui s'effondre, est régie par un pontife de type médiéval qui,
même s'il amendait sa technique, ne peut plus rien, à mon sens, pour
empêcher de disparaitre, pratiquement et assez vite, au cours du troisième
millénaire, du moins sous sa forme "romaine", une Église qui, pour ses deux
"grands sacrements", recourt à la magie. Elle arrache d'abord, avec un peu
d'eau et la comédie d'un dialogue, le nouveau-né aux griffes du Démon
refermées sur lui par le "péché originel", puis, au moyen de quelques
syllabes, elle insère, dans un fragment de pain, le corps, le corps physique
de Jésus-Christ voué à une consommation buccale et stomacale...
7. John
Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, pp. 98-99: We
human beings do not live in sin. We are not born in sin. We do not need to
have the stain of our original sin washed away in baptism. We are not
fallen creatures who will lose salvation if we are not baptized... A savior
who restores us to our prefallen status is therefore pre-Darwinian
superstition and post-Darwinian nonsense.
8. Uta
Ranke-Heineman, Putting Away Childish Things, p. 212: But this
Spirit is no Spirit to be possessed, because it blows where it wills and not
where the Church or anyone else wants it to. We can assume, therefore, that
the Church is merely a product of its own spirit.
9. Joseph
McCabe, The Truth About The Catholic Church, pp. 69-70: The sacrament
of “confirmation” proceeds on the admirable theory that when young folk
attain, or approach, the age of puberty they need “confirming” - that is to
say, strengthening. It may seem ungracious to cavil, but one wonders why
the Almighty grants this stregth only through a bishop, and as part of a
very antique and - to the young folk - totally unintelligible ritual. The
“sacrament” is, of course, merely a part of the system which raises a
priestly caste, to their great advantage, above the common crowd.
10. Ibid.,
pp. 66-68: The sacrament of the Eucharist - that is, the doctrine of the
"real presence" of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine - is quite the
central belief of the Catholic Church...It is on this priceless possession
of a real live god in their midst, and on the miraculous nature of their
papacy, that Catholics affect their amusing air of superiority to all the
rest of mankind. And it is one of the most childish and foolish beliefs
that was ever preserved in a civilized religion.
The
doctrine of the Church is not generally understood. This is not due to
"misrepresentation" but to the fact that a non-Catholic does not find it
credible that any educated modern man or woman should believe such
things... He is aware that Catholics profess the "real presence" of God in
the Eucharist. Being accustomed to the belief that God is everywhere, he
sees no intellectual enormity in this. He does not know, and can hardly
convinced, that Catholics believe, and their Church sternly and dogmatically
insists, that in what seems to the eye to be bread and wine, there is, after
the words of consecration, no bread and wine at all, but the living body of
Jesus Christ down to the last eye-lash and toe-nail.
In the
earlier Middle Ages, as among the uneducated Catholic millions today, no
explanation of the appearance of bread and wine was needed; nor was it
necessary to attempt any explanation how the human body of Christ could be
simultaneously in heaven and in a million places on the earth. To such
minds anything is possible. Explanation is as superfluous as argument.
This was
very convenient. By a supernatural operation, in the mass, the invisible
"substance" of the bread and wine is replaced by the "substance" of the
real, living body of Christ...As to how the body of Christ could be in a
million places at once, and could exist in its full proportions in a crumb
of bread, the answer was - bow to the mystery of "transubstantiation.".
11. Joseph
McCabe, The Truth About The Catholic Church, pp. 71-74: The whole
performance of "the sacrament of penance", and others call the practice of
confession, is useless and stupid in the case of children. It merely
"breaks them in". From that moment they must at least once a year, under
pain of eternal damnation, kneel at the feet of a priest and confess their
sins.
It is quite
obvious that, like the sacrament of marriage, this also was, in the main,
instituted in order to bring the laity under more perfect control.
After a few
words of exhortation, I made the magic sign of the cross in the air, and
repeated the solemn formula of absolution: not "God absolves thee," but "I
absolve thee from thy sins".
The
sacrament of penance no doubt helps some people; it rather debases others;
it is just a painful necessity, doing neither good nor harm, to the great
majority. Its essential evil is its almost incredible stupidity. It was
quite openly instituted in the thirteenth century, as an obligatory
practice, by priests who wanted to bring all Europe under absolute control;
yet the Catholic persuades himself that Christ founded it. It central idea
- the forgiveness of sin by a youth whose hands have been oiled - is
grotesque. It is not even, as sentimental people outside the Church
sometimes imagine, a good human device for promoting morality...
12. Emmett
McLoughlin, Crime and Immorality in The Catholic Church, chapter 14,
p. 215:
Confession -
The First Step in Mental Enslavement:
In spite of
her protestations that she is the only divinely founded church, that she is
holy, that she can and does produce holiness in her members, the Roman
Catholic Church has failed in the past to hold aloft the banner of
morality. And in our time, she continues to harbor more criminals and
sinners than other churches, more even than among people who renounce all
religion..
A significant
explanation for much of Roman Catholic lawlessness lies in the structure of
Catholicism. Its code of behavior is built upon ritual and superstition
rather than upon true religion, reasoned ethics, self-education and
self-control.
The most
important ritual for the control and rehabilitation of the behavior of Roman
Catholics is the ceremony of Confession, also called the Sacrament of
Penance. It is the epitome of superstition in the Church's centuries-old
bag of magic tricks and amulets.
For the
ritual of confession is a superstition, a word that Webster defines as
follows:
An irrational
abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature or God proceeding
from ignorance, unreasoning fear of the unknown or mysterious, morbid
scrupulosity, a belief in magic or chance or the like, misdirected or
unenlightened religion or interpretation of nature;...any belief,
conception, act or practice resulting from such a state of mind...a fixed
irrational idea...a notion maintained in spite of evidence to the contrary.
It is
unfortunate for devout Catholics that this definition applies so exactly to
what all of us were taught to be a sacrament established by Christ himself
for the complete cleansing of souls fouled by sin and their restoration to a
"state of grace".
13. Joseph
McCabe, The Truth Abaut The Catholic Church, p. 70: The sacrament of
“matrimony” requires little discussion. For at least six centuries after
the establishment of Christianity the laity obstinately refused to submit
their marriages to the clergy, and they freely used the right to divorce.
The notion of a divine institution of this sacrament is a wonderful piece of
audacity. It was men like Hildebrand, completing the enslavement of the
people to the priests, who at last secured for the church complete control
of marriage. As a “sacrament” the new type of marriage was indissoluble;
and the morality of countries where the church still resists the right to
dissolve unhappy marriages tells its own history. The whole thing is part
of the determination of the priests to rule and exact fees.
14. Georges
Las Vergnas, Pourquoi J’ai Quitté L’Église Romaine, p. 51: Ce qui
importe, c’est de prononcer sans erreur. Un prêtre peut dire la formule
sacramentelle sans la comprendre, et même sans y croire, mais pour que la
magie opère, it doit vouloir faire ce que fait l’Eglise. Mais s’il change
une syllable rien ne va plus. Le “Sesame ouvre-toi” est, en principle,
invariable..
Les
sacrements ne sont pas seulement absurdes mais blasphématoires; j’appelle ca
“moque-Dieu” dirait Rabelais.
J’en dis
d’ailleurs autant de toute la “piété” catholique, assemblage de trucs et de
recettes qui transforment le prêtre en charlatan et le fidèle en imbécile..
Le prêtre
sait que la bêtise humaine est inepuisable: il en profite.
15. Joseph L.
Daleiden, The Final Superstition, p. 131: I once believe in that
primitive custom of which Cicero wrote in the first century B.C.E (long
before Christianity adopted the practice): “How can a man be so stupid as to
imagine that which he eats to be a god?” My only excuse is that it was
before I had developed what slight powers of critical reasoning I now
possess. Also, I had no way of knowing that anthropologists and historians
had traced the practice of the ritualistic eating of a god to the primitive
belief that we acquire the powers of the creatures we eat.
Finally, I was
fooled by the semantic trick so prevalent in the pseudoscience of
metaphysics: the confusion of words with things. The word
“transubstantiation” is pretty awe-inspiring to an unsophisticated mind.
When it is backed by the weight of an authority figure, such as a priest who
describes how the “substance” of the bread and wine can change without a
change in “properties”, it is easy to be taken in. Besides, everyone likes
a magic show. It is certainly more entertaining than plowing through the
empiricist philisophy of David Hume or the critical analysis of Ludwig
Feuerbach. It was these two men who first pointed out the obvious: for a
thing (substance) to exist without its attributes (properties) is as silly
an idea as the opposite notion - a property without a thing. (Show me along
nothing, or a hard, green nothing.) Therefore, there are no separately
existing substances that could undergo a magical transubstantiation. Once
again theologians successfully bewitched minds with meaningless words. All
the sacraments, like the feasts and symbols of Christianity, were simple
attempts to accommodate pagan beliefs. The evidence for this conclusion is
overwhelming to unbiased, rational minds.
16. Joseph
McCabe, The Truth About The Catholic Church, p. 70: These are six of the
seven sacraments, the glory and distinctive flower of Catholic belief, the
most elaborate system of magic which any civilized religion ever invented.
From first to last they are designed to enhance the power and prestige of
the clergy. In their ritual and their fundamental ideas they are as alien
from, as antagonistic to, the whole spirit of modern times as is alchemy or
astrology. This is the set of beliefs to which the simple Catholic believes
he will one day convert the whole United States! In fine, this is the set
of beliefs which God, the Catholic says, was so deeply concerned to maintain
in their purity that he overlooked all the horrors of the Middle Ages and
all the corruptions of the Pope and the Papacy!
Thay Lời Kết:
1. Stephen
Chapman, Chicago Tribune, Nov. 2, 1997: Americans proposing to
halt trade with countries guilty of religious intolerance would do better to
start elsewhere. Say, Saudi Arabia, where every religion but Islam is
strictly forbidden and where a Muslim can be put to death for converting to
another faith. But Saudi Arabia's theocracy didn't evoke protests in
Washington when the US sent half a million troops to defend it against
Saddam Hussein. No one outside of a psychiatric facility proposes to stop
buying oill from Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest supplier.
2. Julian
Pettifer & Richard Bradley, Missionaries, p. 186: In Asia there are
few countries where missionaries can feel completely confident of an
uninterrupted future for their work. Even the Thais are sensitive
on the subject of missionaries and if evangelism is not carried out in a
tactful manner, their tolerant attitude may change. At present, in a
country where 97 percent of the population is Buddhist and 2 percent Muslim,
there are obviously very few Christians.
Sulak
Sivaraksa is a Buddhist intellectual who was educated in Christian schools.
He is, however, severely irritated by evangelical literature that describes
Thailand as "the territory of Satan"; that declares "99 percent of Thais are
in bondage to demons"; that condemns Buddhism as "idolatry" and "a
religion of hopeless escapism"; and which insists that "without Christian
revelation, there is no relationship with God". As Sulak points out, this
is the everyday language of a certain kind of mission literature, which is
deeply offensive to Thai Buddhists.
3. Mc Kher,
www.nycny.com: The Pope’s Asian-Spanish Inquisition: Recently,
the Pope called for stepping up conversion in Asia. The Pope said that
religious conversion is a human right. ”Just as the first millennium saw
the cross firmly planted in the soil of Europe, and, the second, in America
and Africa, so may the third Christian millennium witness a great harvest of
faith on this vast and vital continent” the Pope said.
The Pope
said the Church acknowledged what was true and holy in such religions as
Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, but only Christ offered the way to ultimate
salvation. The advent of Christianity in Europe, Americas, Australia, and
large parts of Africa and the Pacific led to the systematic and complete
elimination of the pre-Christian polytheistic religions and cultures. Truly,
the bible was exchanged for the native lands with the help of the gun.
Coming from Pope, the highest official of Catholicism, this call to
conversion is a Declaration of War against Asian culture, Asian religions,
and Asian society in general, and Hinduism in particular. Mass-conversion to
Christianity seeks to destroy the soul of Asia, transplanting an un-needed
philosophy. Asia does not need any lesson in religion or piety from anybody.
Why should one religion try to eliminate other through mass-conversions?
Clearly, the Pope seeks to achieve religious cleansing of Asia. This
malicious and predatory approach is highly immoral and unethical. What makes
the Pope think that his is the only true religion? This is
self-righteousness and intolerance to the extreme. He may have the right to
believe so, but he has no right to organize a concerted attack on other
societies to destroy their very nature. Mass religious conversions have
caused political partitions of many nations. The Pope will cause political
instability in Asia through mass-conversions.. The worst thing about most of
the Christian conversions in India is that they are influenced heavily by
economic inducements. Under the garb of medical and social service, many
Christian missionaries effectively blackmail poor people into Christianity.
Whose God can be happy with such fraud?
The hypocrisy
of Pope is really amazing. Last year during his Latin American tour, he had
blamed the Protestant of poaching his flock! The same Pope today claims
that religious conversion is a human right. Well, does the Vatican recognize
any religion other than Catholicism? Obviously the Pope wants a one-way
street of conversion to Christianity. While waxing eloquent about service
and love, the Pope through his chauvinist and hardline theory of “only one
true religion” makes it clear that the tolerance and goodness displayed by
Hinduism counts for nothing. Hinduism is non-judgmental, and Hindus have
graciously accepted the Christians amongst them. The Hindus simply ask the
Church to spare them the fate of Europe and Americas. Satisfied with their
religion, the Hindus do not like outsiders seeking to change their religious
and political demography through orchestrated mass-conversions. But the Pope
insists on mass-conversions. He leaves no incentive in being nice and
accommodating.. But the Hindus are willing to live with Christians. They
ask for only one thing: that the Church not seek to eliminate Hinduism
through conversions, thus changing India forever. The existing Christians
can live freely without trying to convert others. Isn't guarding one's land,
liberty and culture the most basic human right? The Pope talks about
“harvesting faith in Asia” as if the Hindus and others are mere crops,
waiting to be cut off and stored in the elevator. Some may like being
portrayed as a flock of cattle, but the Hindus dislike being shown as
lifeless, immobile crops who can not protect themselves. While attending an
inter-faith meeting, the Pope talked about dialogue, understanding, and
solidarity between religions. The next day he reverted back to his
insistence on Christianity as the only true religion, and gave a call to
convert Asia. This is hypocrisy and duplicity at its worst. The Papal
determination to eliminate Hinduism and Indian culture by converting masses
to Christianity is barely one step short of medieval Talibanism. The
medieval Islamites seek to eliminate the infidels through the sword; the
Pope seeks to achieve this through mass-conversions. The end result is same
in both cases. The Western press is not playing a positive role in this
whole episode. Invariably, the reports from the Associated Press and Reuters
suffix the word “hard-line” or “zealot” when describing Hindu groups which
are resisting the Pope's attempts to take over their religion. Pray tell,
shouldn't the party that says “only my way is correct” be described as
hard-line, zealots and fascists? Instead, Hindus who are ready to co-exist
with others - without being gobbled up by others - are maligned. In fact any
group which claims exclusivity and believes that all others are wrong, and
which on top actively tries to eliminate the other groups forfeits its
claims to any special rights, privileges or tolerance from others. The dire
need of the hour is religious tolerance and co-existence. The religions may
continue to believe in themselves, but they should not seek to destroy
others. Any organized offensive on a religion will invite doom for
everybody.
TÀI LIỆU THAM KHẢO CHỌN LỌC
(SELECTED READINGS)
Abbott, Walter
M., The Documents of Vatican II, An Angelus Book, New York, 1966.
Akerley, Ben
Edward, The X-Rated Bible: An Irreverend Survey of Sex in The Scriptures,
AA Press, Austin, Texas, 1989.
Andrews,
Richard & Schellenberger, Paul, The Tomb of God: The Body of Jesus and
the Solution to a 2000-year-old Mystery, Little, Brown & Company, New
York, 1996
Angeles, Peter
A., Critiques of God: Making The Case Against Belief In God,
Prometheus Book, New York, 1997.
Alves, Rubem,
Protestantism and Repression, Orbis Books, New York, 1979.
Armstrong,
Karen, 1. A History of God, Ballantine Books, New York, 1993; 2.
In The Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis, Alfred A. Knoff, New
York, 1996.
Aterin, Karl
Otmar Von, The Papacy and the Modern World, Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
London, 1970.
Au, William
A., The Cross, The Flag, and The Bomb, Praeger, New York, 1987.
Baigent,
Michael & Leigh, Richard & Lincoln, Henry, 1. Holy Blood, Holy Grail,
A Dell Book, New York, 1983; 2. The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception,
Summit Books, New York, 1991. 3. The Messianic Legacy, A Dell Book,
New York, 1986.
Bainton,
Roland H., Christian Attitudes Toward War & Peace, Abingdon Press,
Nashville, 1986.
Baldwin,
Louis, The Pope and the Mavericks, Prometheus Books, New York, 1988.
Ball, W. P.,
Foote, G. W. et al..., The Bible Handbook, AA Press, Austin, Texas,
1986.
Bartsch, Hans
Werner, Editor, Kerygma and Myth, Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1961.
Batchelor,
Stephen, The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western
Culture, Parallax Press, Berkeley, CA., 1994.
Bays, Jack,
1. The Gospel of Love, Truth Seeker, San Diego, CA., 1942; 2. The
Gospel of Love Vs Crime, Truth Seeker, San Diego, CA., 1942; 3. The
Shadow of the Deamon, Truth Seeker, San Diego, CA., 1943.
Beeson, Trevor
& Pearce, Jenny, A Vision of Hope: The Churches and Change in Latin
America, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1984.
Bello, Nino Lo
, The Vatican Empire, Triden Press, New York, 1968.
Berry, Jason,
Lead Us Not To Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of
Children, Doubleday, New York, 1992.
Berryman,
Phillip, Liberation Theology, Pantheon Books, New York, 1987.
Bhushan,
Shashi, Fundamentalism: A Weapon Against Human Aspiration, Pradeep
Kumar, India, 1986.
Bilheimer,
Robert S., A Spirituality For The Long Haul: Biblical Risk & Moral Stand,
Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1984.
Binns, L.
Elliott, The Decline and Fall of the Medieval Papacy, Barnes & Nobles
Books, New York, 1995.
Blanshard,
Paul, 1. American Freedom and Catholic Power, Beacon Press, Boston,
1950; 2. Communism, Democracy, and Catholic Power, Beacon Press,
Boston, 1951.
Bockmuehl,
Markus, Revelation and Mystery in Ancient Judaism and Pauline
Christianity, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Michigan, 1990.
Boff,
Leonardo, 1. Church: Charism & Power, Crossroad, New York, 1986;
2. Faith on the Edge, Orbis Books, New York, 1989.
Bringas,
Ernie, Going By The Book: Past and Present Tragedies of Biblical
Authority, Hampton Roads Pub. Co., VA., 1996.
Brown, Michael
L., Our Hands Are Stained With Blood: The Tragic Story of the "Church"
and the Jewish People, Destiny Image Pub., 1992.
Bùi Đức Hạnh
(Linh mục), Bức Tâm Thư, Saigon, 1974
Bùi Kha, Hoàng
Nguyên Nhuận, Trần Chung Ngọc, Nguyễn Văn Hóa, Nguyễn Mạnh Quang & Lam Hồng
Thể, Vatican: Thú Tội và Xin Lỗi, Giao Điểm, CA., 2000.
Burkett,
Elinor & Bruni, Frank, A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse, and the
Catholic Church, Viking, New York, 1993.
Bussmann,
Clauss, Who Do You Say? Jesus Christ in Latin American Theology,
Orbis Book, New York, 1985.
Cairns, D. S.,
The Faith That Rebels: A Re-Examination of the Miracles of Jesus,
Doubleday, New York 1928.
Chamberlin, E.
R., The Bad Popes, A Signrt Book, New York, 1969.
Chu Văn Trình,
1. Gia Tô Thực Dân Sử Liệu, Florida, 1990; 2. Sách Lược GiaTô Thực
Dân Thống Trị Toàn Cầu, Florida, 1990; 3. GiaTô Thực Dân Chính Sử,
Florida, 1993; 4. Gián Điệp Alexandre de Rhodes và Chữ Quốc Ngữ,
Florida, 1996.
Cao Huy Thuần,
Les Missionaires et la Politique Coloniale Francaise au Vietnam
(1857-1914), Yale Southeast Asia Studies, 1990. (Đạo Thiên Chúa và
Chủ Nghĩa Thực Dân Tại Việt Nam, Hương Quê, Cali., 1988)
Carmichael,
Joel, "The Birth of Christianity: Reality and Myth", Dorset Press,
New York, 1989.
Cavendish,
Richard, Mythology: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, Barnes & Nobles
Books, New York, 1993.
Cowie, Leonard
W., The March of the Cross, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1962.
Cox, Harvey,
1."The Silencing of Leonardo Boff: The Vatican and the Future of World
Christianity", Meyer-Stone Books, Oak-Park, IL., 1988; 2. "Many
Mansions: A Christian's Encounter With Other Faiths", Collins, London,
1988; 3. Military Chaplains: From a Religious Military to a Military
Religion, Abingdon Press, 1971.
Cross, Colin,
Who Was Jesus, Barnes & Nobles Books, New York, 1993.
Crossan, John
Dominic, Who Killed Jesus?, Harper, San Francisco, 1996.
Daleiden,
Joseph L., The Final Superstition: A Critical Evaluation of the
Judeo-Christian Legacy, Prometheus Books, New York, 1994.
Dalian,
Robert, Dieu Contre Dieu, Édité par l'Homme Lucide, France, 1974.
Davies, A.
Powell, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls, A Mentor Book, New York,
1956.
Davies, J. G.,
The Early Christian Church, Barnes & Nobles Books, New York, 1995.
Davis, Kenneth
C., Don't Know Much About The Bible, Eagle Brook, New York, 1998.
DeBlassie,
Paul, Toxic Christianity, Crossroad, New York, 1992.
Ducey, Michael
H., Outgrowing Catholicism, The Windhover Press, Madison, WI 1990.
Dunn, Joseph,
The Rest of Us Catholics: The Loyal Opposition, Templegate
Publishers, Illinois, 1994.
Durant, Will &
Ariel, The Age of Voltaire, MJF Books, New York, 1992
Eaton,
Frederick Heese, Scandalous Saints, Own Pub., CA, 1994.
Ellul,
Jacques, The Subversion of Christianity, William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, Michigan, 1986.
Ferm, Deane
William, Third World Liberation Theologies, Orbis Book, New York,
1987.
Flamini,
Roland, Pope, Premier, President, McMilland Pub., New York, 1980.
Floyd,
William, Christianity Cross-Examined, Arbitrator Press, New York,
1941.
Foner, Philip
S., The Life and Major Writings of Thomas Paine, A Citadel Press
Book, New York, 1993.
Foote, G.W.,
Bible Romances, The Pioneer Press, London, 1922.
Forest, Alain
& Tsuboi, Yoshiharu, Catholicism et Sociétés Asiatiques, L'Harmattan,
Tokyo, 1988.
Fricke,
Weddig., The Court-Martial of Jesus: A Christian Defends The Jews Against
The Charge of Deicide, Grove Weidenfeld, New York, 1990.
Friedman,
Richard Elliott, 1. Who Wrote The Bible?, Harper & Row, Publishers,
New York, 1989; 2. The Disappearance of God, Little, Brown & Co., New
York, 1995.
Funk, Robert
W. & Hoover, Roy W. & The Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus
Say?, Scribner, New York, 1996.
Garabedian,
John H. & Coombs, Orde, Christ is Dead - Buddha Lives, Workman
Publishing Co., New York, 1969.
Garner, James
Finn, Apocalypse: Wow! A memoir For The End of Time, Simon &
Schuster, New York, 1997.
Garrison,
Webb, Strange Facts About the Bible, Abingdon Press, New York, 1968.
Gaylor, Annie
Laurie, Betrayal of Trust, Clergy Abuse of Children, Freedom from
Religion Foundation, WI, 1988.
Gauvin,
Marshall J., One Hundred Contradictions in the Bible, The Truth
Seeker Company, New York, 1922.
Gibbon,
Edward, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Hartcourt, Brace
and Company, New York 1960.
Graham, Lloyd
M., Deceptions & Myths of the Bible, The Citadel Press Book, New
York, 1995.
Granfield,
Patrick, The Limits of the Papacy, Crossroad, New York, 1990.
Greeley,
Andrew M., 1. The Jesus Myth, Doubleday, New York, 1971; 2. The
Catholic Myth, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1990. 3. The
Catholic Imagination, University of California Press, CA., 2000.
Greeley,
Andrew M. & Neusner, Jacob, The Bible and Us, A Priest and a Rabbi Read
Scripture Together, Warner Books, New York, 1990.
Green, Ruth
Hurmence, 1. The Book of Ruth, Freedom From Religion Foundation,
Wisconsin, 1982; 2. The Born Again Skeptic's Guide to the Bible",
Freedom From Religion Foundation, Wisconsin, 1979.
Greenleaf,
Richard E., The Roman Catholic Church in Colonial Latin America,
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1971.
Guillemin,
Henri, Malheureuse Église, Éditions Du Seuil, Paris, 1992.
Hadden,
Jeffrey K., Prophetic Religions & Politics, Paragon House, New York,
1986.
Hanson, Eric
O., The Catholic Church in World Politics, Princeton University
Press, New Jersey, 1987.
Harris,
Michael, Unholy Orders, Tragedy at Mount Cashel, Penguin Books Ltd.,
Middlesex, England, 1990.
Harwood,
William, Mythology's Last Gods, Yahweh and Jesus, Prometheus Books,
New York, 1992.
Haught, James
A., 2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People With The Courage To Doubt,
Prometheus Books, New York, 1996.
Hayward, F.
H., Questions for Catholics: A Brief Inquiry Into The Catholic Argument,
Watts & Co., London, 1928.
Hebblethwaite,
Peter, In The Vatican: How The Church is Run - Its Personalities,
Traditions and Conflicts, Adler & Adler, Maryland, 1986.
Helms, Randel
McCraw, 1. Gospel Fictions, Prometheus Books, New York, 1988; 2.
Who Wrote The Gospels?, Millennium Press, CA, 1997.
Hitchcock,
James, Catholicism & Modernity, Servant Books, Michigan, 1979.
Hobley,
Leonard F., Christians and Christianity, Wayland Publishers, England,
1979.
Hoffer, Eric.,
The True Believer, Harper & Row, New York, 1966.
Hofmann, Paul,
O Vatican! A Slightly Wicked View of the Holy See, Congdon & Weed,
Inc., New York, 1984.
Hughes,
Philip, A Popular History of the Catholic Church, The Macmillan
Company, New York, 1949.
Huxley,
Julian, Religion Without Revelation, A Mentor Book, New York, 1957.
Hyers, Conrad,
The Comic Vision and the Christian Faith, The Pilgrim Press, New
York, 1981.
Ide, Arthur
Frederick, Unzipped: The Popes Bare All, A Frank Study of Sex &
Corruption in the Vatican, AA Press, TX, 1987.
Imbens, Annie
& Jonker, Ineke, Christianity & Incest, Fortress Press, MN, 1992.
Ingersoll,
Robert G., 1. Some Mistakes of Moses, Freethought Press Association,
New York, 1967; 2. Sixty Five Press Interviews, AAP, Austin, Texas,
1983.
John Paul II,
Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Alfred A. Knof, New York, 1994.
Jones,
Cheslynn & Wainwright, Geoffrey & Yarnold, Edward, The Study of Lithurgy,
Oxford University Press, New York, 1978.
Kasmar, Gene,
All The Obscenities in the Bible, Kas-mark Pub., MN, 1995.
Kasper,
Walter, The God of Jesus Christ, Crossroad, New York, 1986.
Kavanaugh,
James, 1. A Modern Priest Looks at his Outdated Church, Pocket Books,
New York, 1968; 2. God Lives: From Religious Fear To Spiritual Freedom,
Steven J. Nash Pub., IL., 1993; 3. The Birth of God, Pocket Book, New
York, 1970.
Kazantzakis,
Nikos, The Last Temptation of Christ, A Touchtone Book, New York,
1960.
Kersten,
Holger, Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before & After the
Crucifixion, Element Books Limited, Rockport, MA., 1994.
Kersten,
Holger & Gruber, Elmar R., 1. The Jesus Conspiracy: The Turin & The Truth
About The Resurrection, Barnes & Nobles Books, New York, 1995; 2. The
Original Jesus: The Buddhist Sources of Christianity, Element Books,
Inc., Rockport, MA, 1995.
Kirvan, John
J., The Infallibility Debate, The Missionary Society, New York, 1971.
Konakis,
Gregory, Elaborations, A Self-Published Book, 1995.
Kraft, Charles
F., Genesis: Beginnings of the Biblical Drama, Board of Missions, New
York, 1964.
Kung, Hans, 1.
On Being A Christian, Wallaby, New York, 1978; 2. Infallible? An
Inquiry, Doubleday, New York, 1971. 3. Christianity, Essence,
History, and Future, Continuum Publishing Co., New York, 1995.
Las Vergnas,
Georges, Pourquoi J'ai Quitté L'Église Romaine, Imprimerie Les
Comtois, Besancon, France 1956.
Lea, Henry
Charles, The Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Barnes & Nobles Books,
New York, 1993.
Leclercq,
Jacques, Christianity and Money, Hawthorn
Books, New
York, 1960.
Lernoux,
Penny, 1.Cry of the People, Penguin Books, New York, 1991; 2.
People of God, Penguin Books, New York, 1989.
Lewis, Joseph,
1. Ingersoll: The Magnificent, AA Press, Texas, 1983; 2. The
Bible Unmasked, The Freethought Press Association, New York, 1941.
Lewis, Norman,
The Missionaries: God Against The Indians, Penguin Books, New York,
1988.
Lorulot,
André, 1. Les Secrets des Jésuites, Herblay, France, 1933; 2.
Lourdes: La Vérité sur les Visions de Brenadette. Le Mercantilisme
de la Grotte, Herblay (Seine-et-Oie), France, 1933.
Lý Chân,
Thầy Là Ai? Tài Liệu Nghiên Cứu Phúc Âm, Canada, 1997.
Lynch,
Christopher Owen, Selling Catholicism: Bishop Sheen and the Power of
Television, The University Press of Kentucky, 1998.
Maccoby, Hyam,
The Mythmaker: Paul and The Invention of Christianity, Barnes &
Nobles, New York, 1986.
Manhattan,
Avro, 1. The Vatican's Holocaust, Ozark Books, Springfield, MO.,
1986; 2. The Vatican Billions, Paravision Books, London, 1972; 3.
Catholic Imperialism and World Freedom, Watts & Co., London, 1952; 4.
Vietnam: Why Did We Go?, Chick Publications, CA., 1984
Marshall,
Michael, Church at the Cross-Roads, Harper & Row, San Francisco,
1988.
Martin,
Malachi, 1. The Keys to this Blood, A Touchtone Book, New York,
1990; 2. Rich Church, Poor Church, G.P., Putnam's Sons, New Yok,
1984.; 3. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church, Bantam Books, New
York, 1983; 4. The Jesuits, The Society of Jesus, and The Betrayal of
the Roman Catholic Church, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1987.
Martin,
Michael, The Case Against Christianity, Temple University Press,
Philadelphia, 1991.
Martin, Ralph,
A Crisis of Truth: The Attack on Faith, Morality, and Mission in the
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McBrien,
Richard P., 1. Catholicism: Study Edition, Harper & Row, Publishers,
San Francisco, 1981. 2. Report on the Church: Catholicism After Vatican
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McCabe,
Joseph, 1. The Vatican's Last Crime: How The Black International Joined
the World-Plot Against Freedom, Liberalism, and Democracy,
Haldeman-Julius Co., Kansas, 1941; 2. Rome Puts the Blight on Culture:
The Roman Church the Poorest in Cutlure and Richest in Crime,
Haldeman-Julius Publications, Kansas 1942; 3. The Church: The Enemy of
the Workers. Rome is the Natural Ally of All Exploiters,
Haldeman-Julius Publications, Kansas 1942; 4. The Truth About The
Catholic Church, Haldeman-Julius Publications, Kansas, 1926; 5. The
Totalitarian Church of Rome: Its Fuehrer, Its Gauleiter, Its Gestapo, and
Its Money-Box, Haldeman-Julius Publications, Kansas, 1942
McGinn,
Bernard, Meyendorff, John & Leclercq, Jean, Editors, Christian
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McLoughlin,
Emmet, 1. American Culture and Catholic Schools, Lyle Stuart, Inc.,
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Crime and Immorality in the Catholic Church, Lyle Stuart, Inc., New
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1965.
Minerbi,
Sergio I., The Vatican & Zionism, Oxford University Press, New York,
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Monk, Maria,
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Malcom., The End of Christendom, W. B. Eerdmans Pub., Michigan, 1980.
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Peter, The Politics of the Vatican, Frederick A. Praeger,
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1. The Shroud of Turin, Prometheus Books, New York, 1983; 2.
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Numbers,
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Anene, Christ or Devil? The Corrupt Face of Christianity in Africa,
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George Dennis, God and the New Haven Railway, and why Neither One is
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John., The People Versus Rome, Random House, New York, 1969.
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Kenneth L., Making Saints, A Touchtone Book, New York, 1990.
Ziolkowski,
Theodore, Fictional Transfiguration of Jesus, Princeton University
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Le
Cléricalisme: Voilà l'Ennemi! Les Meilleures Pensées Anticléricales de
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Đối Thoại
Với Giáo Hoàng Gioan Phao Lồ II,
Nhiều Tác Giả, Giao Điểm, CA., 1995.
Vatican:
Thú Tội Và Xin Lỗi?, 6 tác giả,
Giao Điểm, Cali., 2000.
Holy
Bible, The New King James Version, American Bible Society, New York, 1982.
The Holy
Bible, New International Version,
International Bible Society, CO., 1984.
Ki Tô
Giáo: Từ Thực Chất Đến Huyền Thoại, Nhiều Tác Giả, NXB Văn Hóa, USA, 1996.
Tại Sao
Không Theo Đạo Chúa, Tuyển Tập I, 1994; Tuyển Tập II, 1998, Ban Nghiên
Cứu Đạo Giáo, Texas
Thánh Kinh:
Cựu Ước và Tân Ước (Bản Diễn Ý),
Văn Phẩm Nguồn Sống Phát Hành, 1994.
Giáo Lý
Công Giáo, Bản dịch của Hoài
Chiên và Nguyễn Khắc Xuyên, Zieleks Publishing Co., Texas, 1991.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church, Liguori
Publications, MO, 1994.
Tin Tức
Trên Báo Chí và TV.
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