Perhaps two….Bibles and Bulls and Bucking
By Sankofie | Published | No Comments
But here comes the other part, as ole people sey “yu neva si smoke without fire.” So the same Mark 16 we spoke of before, goes on to say that Jesus the Christ said that, to complete the sentence being spoken, “but he that believeth not shall be damned”. I am just so confused. So if my neighbours whom I should love so much, and only after Jesus the Christ, my neighbours with whom I am walking the earth, all creatures born, being born and to be born, discovered and yet to be discovered, those who lived thousands of years before the birth of Jesus the Christ, recognized Divinity and participated in divine relationships with God the Father on an everyday basis, those living and now being taught by their community to worship God in their own way, they are to be ‘damned?” If they dare to want to continue a direct relationship with God and not enter perhaps the same one, perhaps a new one with him through his Son Jesus the Christ, they are to be damned? What does that even mean? Is that the meaning of ‘damned’ expressed in the Papal Bull where it gives directives “to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue,” to “reduce their persons to perpetual slavery,” to steal every single thing from them including even their breath of life, if perhaps necessary? To what end? So that only Christians should live upon the earth? When and where did God say so? What a confusing world!So here are some other Bulls that, perhaps, we should look at as well. After all we may want to speculate on how Jesus the Christ, (Son of God, God who seems to have either retired or lost his throne), got the lead role in these Bulls every single time. Read this one carefully as you are specifically mentioned. Do you not live in one of “the several climes of the world” and do you not belong to one of “all the nations dwelling in them?” Then let it be known to you that the Roman Pontiff is “seeking and desiring the salvation of all” of which you are also one. You are very much involved! The only problem is that you have to give up the God of your ancestors and in, perhaps a new way of worship, use Jesus the Christ, as the access point to the Christian God to whom you are being, shall we say, introduced.
Romanus Pontifex (1455) – Supports Dum Diversas (1452) by reaffirming the grabbing of lands that were not owned by Christians, colonization and reemphasizing their purpose and it seems their responsibility for the souls of the peoples of the whole world and the internationalization of Christianity.
The Roman pontiff, successor of the key-bearer of the heavenly kingdom and vicar of Jesus Christ, contemplating with a father’s mind all the several climes of the world and the characteristics of all the nations dwelling in them and seeking and desiring the salvation of all, wholesomely ordains and disposes upon careful deliberation those things which he sees will be agreeable to the Divine Majesty and by which he may bring the sheep entrusted to him by God into the single divine fold, and may acquire for them the reward of eternal felicity, and obtain pardon for their souls. This we believe will more certainly come to pass, through the aid of the Lord, if we bestow suitable favors and special graces on those Catholic kings and princes, who, like athletes and intrepid champions of the Christian faith, as we know by the evidence of facts, not only restrain the savage excesses of the Saracens and of other infidels, enemies of the Christian name, but also for the defense and increase of the faith vanquish them and their kingdoms and habitations, though situated in the remotest parts unknown to us, and subject them to their own temporal dominion, sparing no labor and expense, in order that those kings and princes, relieved of all obstacles, may be the more animated to the prosecution of so salutary and laudable a work. Romanus Pontifex – Papal Encyclicals
Inter Caetera (1493) – Gave Spain and Portugal authority to colonize lands in the Americas. These of course would be the lands that they would ‘discover.’
“In our strongest support in the Lord of this sacred and commendable plan of yours and wishing that it shall be carried to its rightful end and that the name of our Savior shall be brought into those regions, we urge you, therefore, most strongly in the Lord and by the reception of the holy baptism, through which you owe obedience to our apostolic mandates, and by the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ’s mercy, we order you sternly, if you, in your dedication to the true faith, devoutly intend to rigorously pursue such an expedition, that it be and has to be your intention to induce the populations living in those islands and lands to accept the Christian religion, and neither danger nor hardship should ever deter you in your steadfast hope and confidence that God Almighty will ensure the good outcome of your endeavors”. The Papal Bull Inter Caetera of May 4, 1493
The power and authority of the Bulls was vested in the Church. The Church, by naming itself “Catholic”, declared itself to be, through the meaning of the word ‘Catholic,’a universal entity, with a clear mission to have all human kind, existing, to be existing, that would ever exist in the Universe, declared Christians. This is how we are saying this for now as you will see later that this initiative was not only focused on humans. The Catholic Church seemed to have, perhaps, massed itself into perhaps a kind of sense that their power and permissions were infused with the absoluteness of Divine power and authority. They seemed to have missed some simple lessons that could so easily have been grasped from the learned before them. Those who had first greeted, invoked and worshiped the One Divine Supreme God. Had they been already teachable, receptive, a little enlightened or even curious to learn, the wise old ones would have given them simple lessons like, although eating is a universal activity, the peoples of the nations within the climes, all eat different foods; that although the same sun shines on the whole earth and helps plants to grow, different plants grow in different places; they could have learned that although all creatures worship, the spirit of diversity, an aspect of the basic framework of creation, allows us to express worship in ways that are appropriate, relevant and very different oftentimes.
I am sure that my own ancient ancestors would have shared that creativity, which arises from creation, supports variety, (the spice of life), in worship, work and all other ways of life. They would have asked that we consider that Christianity, as the only way of worship by all creatures, all living things, everything that has breath, could possibly become eternally boring? That the depth, breath and vastness of the One God, creator of us all, could really not be captured (pun intended) or appreciated by mankind through a single religion? That God, perhaps, does not fully reside in oneness in religions but in the multi-dimensionality of spiritual systems? But then again, perhaps the teacher does not teach until the student is ready.
