Letters to the Editor
Amerigo
Published Letters: 955 Editor's Choice: 60
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Bible interpretation
[Read the article: Mike Huckabee and the "end times"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anyway, Jesus said he did not know the precise time of his return, only God the Father. If God the Father wasn't telling his own Son, then I think it's pretty safe to say he won't be clueing anyone else in.
I think you are somewhat missing the point here.
Educated Christians and secularists believe that the Bible stories are a reflection of the thinking of their time, in a presscientific era and in historical conditions that are quite different from the present day.
There is a whole vast body of scholarship on issues like what order the various books were written on, what sources the authors were familiar with, which books copied from each other, and so on.
There are many contradictions, such as the scourging of the money changers in the temple occuring both at the beginning of Jesus' ministry in John and at the end in the other gospels, or in the frankly conflicting family trees given for Jesus.
The books of the New Testament are the books of the Church, and any sayings that are attributed to Jesus must be taken with a pinch of salt according to who "recorded" them. If anything can be known about what Jesus said the parables are probably the closest thing to verbatim.
So we really cannot be sure of anything that Jesus actually said--as if it matters.
The fundamentalist schtick is to completely ignore all scholarly bible study and to cherry pick whatever verses take their fancy, usually completely out of context.
Thus you can either interpret the End Times prophecies in the Book of Revelation in context as representing the fantasies of a persecuted people (Jews, Christians) in a small country in the Roman Empire, dreaming of a supernatural savior returning to punish the Romans and put everything right, or you can read it in the bizarre fundamentalist way that takes these fantasies as predictions of the future that are actually about to come true over two thousand years later, and after the Roman empire became Christian, declined, and fell.
Now which makes sense? And why is there such a powerful atavistic movement in the United States to promote religious fundamentalism?
God only knows. (Oops, there I go again.)
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Cheating spouse deceased
[Read the article: After my husband died of cancer I found he'd been cheating]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The LW's husband died of cancer a week ago leaving her with three young children, and she found out about the affair too.
Her emotions will be in turmoil. Hell, I used to tear up for weeks after my mother died, even though she was old and it was expected and she lived her life to the full until a couple of weeks before her death.
It will take time, lots of time.
Regarding the husband. I don't know why he did what he did, but it is possible that he knew he was dying of cancer and that may have influenced his desire to do what he did.
The desire to have sex--passionate, hot sex with a new partner is an incredibly strong force, and if you know you are going to die, then maybe you feel you might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb.
Did he believe in an afterlife, or did he think that death is final?
When I was about 14, it was the height of the cold war and my friends and I would say that if we knew a nuclear bomb was going to land tomorrow, we would rape the nearest woman so we did not die virgins. Unlike the 9/11 gang we had no faith in an afterlife with sexy women. I guess we would not have even known how to rape a woman, but the basic idea seemed to be that imminent annihilation changed the rules of engagement.
I don't think he intended to hurt his wife and children. He probably intended that she would never find out.
Maybe the experience was a great balm to him. Or maybe it was an abysmal failure. We shall never know.
Most men are not really monogamous at heart, though they may not tell their wives this for fear of hurting their wife's feelings, or of being beaten over the head with a saute pan.
With time the LW may be able to let it go and remember the good times. I am sure her husband loved his family and did not want to die and leave them behind.