The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-03-31
FISHING WITH NETS-A REJOIN
DER
noala. Ella. March 20, 1911.
, Editor OcaIa Banner:

arriving in Florida was 10 seen ou'
Editor Harris, and give into his hanus
for safe-keeplng my political and the
illogical mental furniture.
| 7 did this after knowing the reputa'
ton of the man, and the understand
inc was that my opinions on those
Subjects were to be carefully wrapped
in camphor and preserved lnVloiate
from change or decay.
Since that time, whenever those
subjects are under discussion, L nave
concerned myself, not so much IN as
certaining the facts in the premises
as in finding out, what does Harris
say about this?
In this indolent way I have proceed
ed over year, and was felicitatlng
myself upon my fortunate escape from
the perplexity involved in constant
contemplation of those unsettIlng
problems. and it was only this morn
ing that l inadvertently discovered
that | had been blindly following an
unsafe guide, and that he was on the
verge of topping me into the bottom
less chasm of heterOdOxy.
The editor, under the caption OF
Fishing With Nets" in this Morn
ing's Banner. uses the same ques-
tiOnable tactics that many another eX-
ponent of some strange and fanciful
doctrine has used, to-wit: He states
few automatic and indubitable
truths, as, for instance, that fishing
with nets was in vogue during the
time of Christ, and then after lulling
us into a sense of security he insidu-
ously launches this thunderbolt of a
new theological dogma, Saint Paul
was a net-maker.
Well, | hesitated long. Of course l
knew, as every Sunday school boy
knows, that st. Paul was a tent-mak-
err, but l thought perhaps the editor
had unearthed some new data on the
subject, and that Saint Paul. while
making tents for the main issue,
might have had a little net factory on
the side. So I hastily re-read my BIZ
BILE, pulled down old Josephus and
scrutinized the 18th chapter, waded
through volumes of Gibbons Rome,
and read all over again THE Lives
of the Saints" Same result every
where. l became suspicious. | rea-
soned this way: Who will guaran-
tee me in the faith if, peradventure,
the Banner should announce that st.
Peter was milliner because he used
hat, or that Judas Iscariot was an
Ocala land agent merely because he
practiced deception?
Now, mind you, have no objections
to offer if Mr. Harris wishes to pro-
mulgate new and heterodox theOl-
ogy, per Sc. The days of heresy hunt
ing are past, l hope. What | object
to is his standing sponsor for my be-
liefs and then, without word of
warning, leading me into dangerous
and unorthodOx channels. "St. Paul
was a net-maker" Ergo, to indiscrim-
inately set nets is morally right.
He appears to totally forget that
Christ said to his disciples, Quit
your nets" and upon the shaky foun-
dations of this new dogma the editor
proceeds to erect a system. of natural
history that l strongly suspect is as
unreliable as his theology. He says
''the big fishes eat up the little ones"
therefore, away with big fish.
True. some kinds of fishes, like
bass or pike, do occasionally devour
the sick or manned of their own kind,
but this species of cannibalism is not
very common-they much prefer craw-
fish.
Every farmer boy has seen an old
sow that would sometimes, if not
properly fed, eat up her own children.
but do you for a moment suppose that
pork would become more plentiful
and cheap if people always killed all
old sows at sight?
Modern criticism claims that many
of the Bible stories are myths; that
the language used is in the form of
a large imagery, and not intended to
convey historical data, and is entitled
to much latitude of Interpretation. AS.
for instance, the story of Samson and
Delilah is a derivation from the an
cient sun myths of Osiris, wherein
Osiris (the SUM is shorn of his hair
Crays) by a goddess representing
night.
| am prepared to receive such criti-
clsm with much federation when it
comes as mere criticism, but when a
man asks me to accept a new theolog-
lcal dogma upon his unsupported as
sertion, and then proceeds to build
upon that dogma a questionable natu-
raj history, cosmogony, and system of
jurisprudence, and when, further. that