Peter Espeut
IAN BOYNE has a radio and television programme in Jamaica called Religious Hard Talk where he brings together persons from different religions and denominations to share their faith and debate what they believe. I genuinely think the discourse is good. So many churches believe conflicting doctrines, all of which cannot be correct. If the playing field is level, let the purveyors of ideas bring their wares, and let all ideas contend!
Ian asked me to debate a Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) "evangelist" this week - a Mr. Mould - and having a lively faith (and a First Class Honours degree in Theology) I prepared myself to aggressively show how SDAs are akin to the "Judaizers" St. Paul railed against in his Letter to the Galatians - persons claiming to be Christian but who seem not to be impressed by the New Covenant of Jesus; they hold firmly to Old Covenant practices and beliefs, e.g. Saturday worship and the ban on the eating of pork, both left behind even in New Testament times, as is easily shown in the Bible.
INSPIRED WORD OF GOD
Because SDAs are also fundamentalists, I came prepared to explain how we non-fundamentalists deal with the Bible as the 100 per cent true and inspired Word of God, even though it often contradicts itself on matters of science and history (but then the Bible is neither a science book nor purely history, so that should not be surprising). I was prepared to show whose name adds up to the dreaded 666 (not the Pope, of course)! And I was prepared to address why we Roman Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit has continued to inspire us over the last 2,000 years.
Well I wasted my time preparing. Mr. Mould was not interested in debating faith or doctrine. He launched into a virulent political attack upon the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), accusing the Pope and the Vatican authorities of being interested in the domination of every nation on earth, and of actually using murder to achieve its goals. As a particular example he accused the Pope and the Vatican authorities of being behind the assassination of President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Washington DC, in 1865. He claims that he has evidence that, after the deed, the assassin was whisked away to Italy by two Roman Catholic priests, and that the murderer was subsequently seen in the uniform of the Papal Guard!
Needless to say I was unprepared for this onslaught, and my carefully marked Bible, Theological Encyclopaedia, and the writings of St. Justin the Martyr from 150 AD were clearly not going to be needed. I had never heard these accusations before, and still do not know upon what evidence they are based. The USA has been fanatically anti-Catholic throughout almost all of its history; if evidence exists that the RCC had anything to do with Lincoln's assassination, I can't see who could suppress it! Besides, how does one prove a negative - that something is not true? That is a logical impossibility! Ian set me up, and trapped me between a rock and a hard place!
FALSE ASSERTIONS
On the face of it some of Mr. Mould's assertions were false, and easily shown to be so. Negative references to Rome in the Book of the Revelation do not, of course, refer to the Pope and the Vatican but to the Roman Emperors who persecuted the early Christians, throwing many to the lions! Even Mr. Mould should have known that!
He claimed that it was an edict of the Roman Emperor Justinian that made the Pope Head of the RCC, not the declaration of Jesus about "on this rock" and "feed my lambs". Justinian was Emperor from 527-565 while the Council of Nicea in 325 clearly held the Pope to be head of the Church. Even the heretic Nestorius took his case to the Pope. Mr. Mould's facts are way off.
Mr. Mould quoted from a Roman document where the Pope claims for himself "magisterial" authority, and triumphantly claimed to have proven his point that the Vatican is about world domination. He thought that "magisterial" meant "ruling", where in fact it means the authority to teach or to judge. The Church reserves the right to speak out on matters of public morality, and is not subject to the state. If Mr. Mould is correct then the RCC in Jamaica is seeking to take over the country. A more ridiculous idea I have never heard!
I was disappointed in Religious Hard Talk this week. In fact, this was not so much hard talk about religion as about allegations of conspiracies. The trouble with churches with a long history is that inevitably there are skeletons in the closet.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon.
