From: gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Silly Bible semi-pedantry [was: Re: Happy Christmas!]
Date: 8 Jan 93 17:28:40 GMT
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX

In article <1993Jan7.181117.7674@netcom.com> sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller) writes:
>In article <1993Jan5.092106.12107@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> mmh@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) writes:
>>In article <1992Dec30.052511.17710@digi.lonestar.org> gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo) writes:
>>>In article <1992Dec28.234520.13834@netcom.com> sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller) writes:
>>>>OBsoc.culture.brit:
>>>>Must all be bogus anyway, since the gospels seem to completely drop
>>>>out the bit where Jesus visits the UK.  Would have been the highlight
>>>>of his travels, so the chronicles must therefore be entirely bogus.
>>>>
>>>The Bible never claims to be a complete biography of Christ or a history
>>>of the events surrounding his life in the conventional sense.  Your
>>>conlusion that their failure to mention this implies that they are therefore
>>>entirely bogus is about as logical as the claim that they can only be
>>>inspired if they are totally inerrant.
>>>
>>>The legendary appearance of Christ in England implies that he appeared
>>>there after the Resurrection, i.e. at a time when the possibility for
>>>him to appear in the body of resurrection would have made such appearances
>>>no longer constrained by physical time and space.
>>
>>Looks like you have forgotten the famous soc.culture.british
>>non-printing smiley rule.
>
>
>He can't help it.  You have witnessed possibly your first lecture
>from an American Bible Belt Christian.  
>
>
>>
>>There is a legend that Jesus was brought to Britain as a child
>>by Joseph of Arimethea (not the same person as Joseph, Mary's
>>spouse, though I have seen him wrongly referred to as such in
>>several places this Christmas, most unfortunately in the
>>Guardian). They stayed at Glastonbury, and there is still a
>>thorn tree there which grew when Joseph planted his staff in
>>the ground.
>>
>
>
>And remember the writing on the wall of the cave guarded by
>the Vorpal Rabbit.  It was written in Aramaic by Joseph of A.
>
>Aaaaagh.

Note that I didn't attempt to prove it. I alluded to scripture only so far as
to expand the scope of the discussion.  A Bible belter would insist that every
word of scripture was literally, materially true, versus a skeptic who would
say that if it is possible to show even one inconsistency, either of the
Bible with itself or of the Bible with known material facts, then the whole
thing is ergo proven to be hogwash.  Likewise, a Bible belter would insist
that if it is not in the Bible then it is either false or highly suspect,
or if true it was not meant for us to know.

As for whether the Glastonbury legend is really true, I don't know. But I
do think that behind many a legend -- Christian and pagan -- there is often
a kernel of truth.  Discerning the nature of that kernel of truth is not
easy, except for biblical literalists and overconfident scoffers, for whom
the world dare not hold any mysteries at all.

Yes, I live in the Bible belt - Dallas has even been called its buckle -
but I also believe in some non Bible-beltish things which would be shocking
to many of the local residents, and maybe to you too.

Best wishes and  a hearty snickersnack to you.

Gerry Palo (73237.2006@compuserve.com)