The apostle Phoebe

Revelations
This has been an odd Easter.

Thanks mainly to Channel Four, I know several surprising gobbets of information about Christianity that I never knew before.

There is a gospel by the Apostle Thomas. It was not included with the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John gospels because some of his stories are a bit far-fetched. One said that the child Jesus behaved like a fairy and used his divine powers to change his fellow children into goats.

In order to make sure the ancient prophecies were fulfilled two of the gospels invented list of ancestors from Joseph to King David. One list has 24 names, the other 42. None of the names are common to both lists.

There were many female apostles, including Phoebe, Clarissa and Lydia, Julie, Dorcas and Junia. The early church was so male chauvinistic and as the victors write history they tried to obliterate their memories. Successfully in my case.

The apostle Thomas went forth and established a Christian Church in Karela in India in the first century. Missionaries from Europe destroyed all their sacred books later to replace the local Christianity with the Western version.

In the first years of the first century the Apostle James, the brother of Jesus, was the head of the Church that saw itself as a part of the Jewish religion. The claims of Peter as head of the church were later inventions to shore up the myth of a separate Christian Church from the time of Christ.

Two mis-translations have produced confusion. The word for a young woman was translated as virgin and applied to Mary. The word to hand over was mis-translated as betrayal and branded Judas as the ultra evil.

Why did no one ever tell me these things?

Divine truth
Is the embryo hysteria over?

Delighted to hear the voice of sensible thinking Catholicism on the radio this morning. Jim Devine MP is the successor to Robin Cooke. He was briefly a PPS but he resigned rightly to vote against the absurdity of Trident.

Today he said that as a good Scottish Catholic he would be voting for the embryo bill. His background is in health and he values medical research above the strictures on the church, which are based on a wild exaggeration of the bill’s purpose.

There are no strict rules on which votes are conscience votes. No consciences were allowed to intrude on whether we went to war in Iraq.  That was a three line. If MPs feel strongly they will vote against. 139 Labour MPs did. I doubt if anything like that number will oppose the embryo bill.

Feeding the beast
A non-constituent has suggested that I publish my expenses. I’m not tempted – especially as most of them have been published for four years now and they are pretty boring. The present auditing process will be expanded but MPs would be foolish to anticipate the reform that is now underway.

The media who have deliberately misled their readers to create sensational stories.  Those MPs who have published details were all pilloried for their pains. You can't win.

There is an attempt by one newspaper under FOI to publish more details of Welsh MPs expenses. The view of most MPs is that this will only be 'feeding the beast’. The fairest way forward is to publish details of all MPs expenses simultaneously. That will be done soon. They will not be half as interesting as the lurid stories suggest.

Sehr gut

Is web translation now so easy?

Tracing back someone who had ‘hit’ my website, I was astonished to see a year’s blog translated into German. My primitive German is not good enough to know whether the following conveys the right message of Saturday's blog. Anyone know?

Am Dienstag, den Brown-Sarkozy Liebe-und verpflichten uns zu einem neuen Akt der atomaren Wahnsinn.

Sie wird von ihren Erinnerungen tilgen die 73 Milliarden britische Pfund kosten, um unsere Kernkraftwerke Vermächtnis. It’s Omerta too for MOX  Es ist auch für die Omerta MOX - die anderen warf £ 473 Millionen von Steuergeldern Kassa-und hinterließ uns eine gefährliche nukleare Transport Dilemma.

Comments

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks twice Greg for the translation and a powerful reminder of the Alton Bill in the eighties.

It's fascinating to read the Bablefish translation.
I remember vividly the abortion debate of 88-89. 10% of my constituents contacted me by petition, letter or visits. Father Sean Seddon brought a delegation of St Josephs sixth formers up to Parliament. He died tragically shortly afterwards.

I showed weakness in that I went to great lengths to say that I understood the arguments for and against Alton. This meant that I was targeted by both sides.

Glad to hear you have survived your school experience.

Best wishes

[greg]

Hello Paul

My wife is fortunate enough to speak German fluently and she wasn't impressed by the translation: in fact she was quite sniffy about it!

To quote her directly, 'The text is utter gibberish, looks like Babelfish spewings to me. I could make sense of what it says, but that is what it actually says.'

Literal translation appears below:
*****
On Tuesday, the Brown-Sarkozy love-and bind us to a new act of atomic
madness.

It will from your memories liquidate 73 billion british pounds, for
our nuclear power station legacy. It's Omerta too for MOX - the
others throw 473 from tax cash registers and left us a dangerous
nuclear transportation dilemma.
*****

On the topic of politics and religion, as a refugee from St Joseph's High School in Newport (circa 1989), I have strong memories of it being strongly 'suggested' my year wrote individual letters to our local MPs at the time informing them that as first-time voters we would be closely watching their actions on a right-to-life/abortion/research bill that was being read in the commons at the time.

I refused, but it is interesting to see that the Catholic church applies moral pressure to all levels of their communion. Don't happen to remember getting a large number of 'pro-life' letters postmarked 'Duffryn' in 1988/89 do you?

Regards

Greg

[valleylad]

Is the embryo hysteria over? I hope not! I've been thoroughly enjoying it.

It's nice to see an MP who strongly supported the illegal war in Iraq resulting in countless suffering having problems because some lab work offends his masters in Rome. It also shows how much of a "bear of little brain" he is.

I think if MP's intend to serve the catholic church rather than their constituents it should be highlighted at election time and recorded in the register of members interests.