Sarai,
So the Pope (at least this Pope) interprets the Bible one way, Jar and Msloft interpret it another way, but of course they interpret it the "right" way, according to the "plain" meaning of the words (at least the translated words, as I suspect that they haven't read it in the original Aramaic, nor have they ever seen a text of the original as it doesn't really exist anymore. But nevermind that, God took care of the original and made sure that the translations were pure and put down just as He intended them, just as He looks after each hair on everyone's head.
You are, I suspect, Jewish. I am, as I wrote in an earlier post, Jewish. I pointed in that post to the abyss between Judaism and Christianity, at least a certain type of Christianity which not only insists on literalism but insists that they understand the literal truth and all other understandings of the Book are wrong, absurd, futile, ridiculous. Judaism is, generally speaking, nothing like that, though there have on occasion been a few sects which insist on similar things about their understanding of the Bible. But they have always been a tiny minority. I'm not sure how many Christians insist on their views like this, but my impression as an outsider is that there is a greater percentage of Christians who think in this way than Jews. FWIW.
Now this view certainly is a possible view. But it is also a very very powerful argument about why it is that politics and religion should never never mix, and tax money should never never go to any religion (other than as tax deductions of course). It's no wonder there have been so many wars between religions in the past with attitudes like those.
It's an unbelievably stupid waste of time and energy.
Sam
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