No-one knows it all

I have been interested to read some of the posturing letters to the editor in your paper recently.
It seems to me that the old saying “A little knowledge is dangerous”; rings true in relation to some content in letters regarding, religion, Christianity and Bishop Bill Morris.
No man can claim he has the whole truth – it won’t be until we meet our Maker that we learn that answer! It certainly seems supercilious on the part of some of the writers and smacks of pride in their certainty that they know the sum of it all. No man has the right to think that they “know it all”. Compared to the mind of God, man’s intellect wouldn’t even rate the size of a pea.
Unfortunately man has been endowed with a terrible disease called “human nature”. This can cause many to believe they are “right” and commit many indiscretions, rabbit on, and cause pain and bad example to many good-living folk.
What the Catholic Church doesn’t need now is another scandal – so why perpetuate scandal? Unfortunately, in the eyes of some people, the Catholic Church appears bound up by ritual, dogma and a “spirit of religiosity”. Pope John Paul II did a lot to promote ecumenism within the church and religious tolerance of all faiths. Bishop Bill Morris did the same. He was a fine example of how a leader should commune not only with his own flock but with leaders and members of all faiths within the Toowoomba Diocese and beyond.
A week recently was declared the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”. Many people from various faith communities came together at the Uniting Church Hall to pray, socialise and share their history within the Southern Downs region as well as share a meal – were you there?
We are urged to “Love God with our whole mind and our neighbour as ourselves”.
How many of the contributing writers to your newspaper have helped their neighbours this year?
My prayer for this region and for all people would be that we discard prejudice, that we discard any “spirit of religiosity” and that we all adopt a “spirit of Christianity”. After all, regardless of what faith community we belong to – the journey is about establishing our own personal relationship with the Lord and serving our neighbour!
Margaret Trahair, Warwick
Debate over religion
I would like to thank Patrick Cahill for his short note in the last Southern Free Times, but am somewhat mystified by his suggestion that I just read what the Catholic Church publishes. I can assure him that this is not so. As someone who converted to the Catholic Church over 50 years ago, who was brought up in the Church of England, but spent seven years attending a Presbyterian and Methodist Boarding School, I am very well versed in the teachings of the Protestant Churches. I also had a good look at Islam and Buddhism before I converted to Catholicism.
The history of the Protestant Churches is less than 500 years old, whereas that of Catholicism is almost 2000 years old, and it is still one Church, whereas Protestantism has fragmented into almost 40,000 different beliefs. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church make up somewhat more than three-quarters of all the Christians in our world, which of course includes all the Eastern Rite and Coptic Catholics too. The Orthodox Church, which has all the Seven Sacraments, but does not accept the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, is the only other Church in which Catholics may receive the Blessed Sacrament, and then only when there is no local Catholic Church. When it comes to history, it is natural that Catholicism has a much greater range but, as my wife is an Anglican and has been teaching religious education for many, many years, I have the opportunity of keeping up with what is happening in the Protestant Churches too.
I have not read “The New Testament Documents”, by F F Bruce, which I am sure is excellent, but there have been a good many other books published on the subject that I have read. A book that my wife finds most useful when giving religious instruction is a book titled THE HEBREW CHRIST, Language in the Age of the Gospels, by Claude Tresmontant. It is a fascinating book that I feel sure Mr Cahill would find enthralling. God Bless him!
Charles Shann, Warwick