Loading ...Pope silent on “Lord’s Prayer Amendment”
flockwoodI received a nice letter from Col. Daniel B. McElwain of Culpepper, Va. A few years ago, he wrote a book proposing 13 new amendments to the United States Constitution. Now he’s come up with a 14th amendment — but this one would need to be ratified by a higher power than Congress.
It’s titled: “A Proposed Amendment to the Lord’s Prayer.”
McElwain suggests adding four words to the famous New Testament passage: Immediately after Lead us not into temptation, McElwain proposes adding: “nor in harm’s way,” but deliver us from evil.
The current version, McElwain says, is flawed because it doesn’t address harms “that are neither ‘temptation’ or ‘evil’”, such as natural disasters, accidents, equipment failure and “children’s unpredictable conduct.”
Thus far, the world’s religious leaders have been slow to embrace the proposal. “I sent this to the Pope on 1 Aug., ’09,” McElwain writes. “No reply as of 17 Sept.”
If you were able to amend the Bible, is there any statement you’d want to add? Or remove?
September 28th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
One would sometimes think that the entire New Testament had be amended out of the Bible when one hears preachers condemning people for not living according to the Old Testament laws.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Well, there are certainly a lot of them I’d remove, such as the passages that are cited by people who don’t like gays and lesbians, in support of their prejudices, and I’d like to see some language in there condemning racism and prejudice. We could also do away with that part about the poison snakes, though most scholars don’t think that was originally in the Bible anyway.
I would be against the amendment suggested by the good Colonel; “deliver us from evil” pretty much sums up everything he wants to see God protect us from. I think natural disasters, accidents, and even children’s unpredictable conduct could be considered the type of evil contemplated by the prayer.
September 29th, 2009 at 10:48 am
I can think of several committees in the Diocese of Newark that would LOVE to get their hands on that project. Is Sandy Wilson available with her scissors and library paste?
Personally I would not remove one single word from the Bible, either Testament. I wouldn’t change a single pronoun, I wouldn’t soften a single verse of the imprecatory psalms. What I would do is promote scriptural literacy. Not the EFM “let’s all share how broken we are” or “me-me-me” approach to scripture, but real scriptural literacy.
You know, those funny old saints with funny Greek names and all that cruddy old stuff.
Funny how Reform Jews don’t subtract a syllable from the OT, but are farther along on gay issues (and peace issues, etc etc) than even the drama-addicted Episcoleft.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Well, reform Jews don’t subtract from the OT, they just don’t follow it. In that regard, they’re the same as we in the Episcoleft, and are a good example to us that it is possible for an old-line religion like Judaism to come to terms with issues like homosexuality. It shows that we can do so, too.