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Faith leaders like to give the impression that their beliefs were “lowered from heaven” into the safekeeping of high-level church leaders.
In fact, early priests and rabbis pulled together political platform-type committees and hammered out compromises that the founders of the faiths may or may not have endorsed.
The Christian Church decided upon the basic apostolic books of the New Testament a couple hundred years after Jesus. From a dozen or two popular writings, the platform committee narrowed down the number of authorized gospels to just four.
A hundred or so years later another ecumenical gathering hammered out a specific scriptural interpretation of those gospels to be followed by the mainstream church.
Much later, at the time of the Protestant Reformation, other platform processes took place that resulted in the formation of groups like Lutherans, Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians, Christian Scientists, and many others, all with very different beliefs.
In the Judaic Church, the first step of the platform process took place not long after the time of Jesus when leading rabbis agreed upon the books to be gathered into the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament that we have today.
The meanings of words get muddied over time and so the principles of the founders (Jesus, Moses) may not be represented very well today. Religious freedom allows churches to mold the message however they want.
Competent language experts, social scientists and historians can help correct misinterpretations, but today’s churches are probably too entrenched in bureaucracy to care much about their findings.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Reunion enjoyed
On July 17, I was honored with an invitation to attend a Girls’ Mini-Reunion of the Porter Class of 1977 at the Oyster Bar in downtown Brownsville. Way back, I was also honored to have been asked to serve as their class sponsor from 1974-1977.
Porter had just been born — brand new building, staffed by educators who had chosen to transfer from Brownsville High School. We were all proud and eager to get the school started with a fine group of young people.
Right now, I cannot even remember what I ordered for my meal or if I ate it, because we were having so much fun. Recalling many memories of our years together, we busted out into laughter, abrazos and enjoyed catching up.
Seeing these young ladies again made me feel young again and I wondered how they put up with “Mother Hen J.Rod.” Their success made me realize that I was so fortunate to have been an educator — their teacher, coach, administrator. I am now proud to be able to call them friends. Thank you, Mabel Arteaga, Rosie Cantu, Letty Casas, Edna Perales, Elena Valdez, Letty Abete, Jo Ann Garza, Lynda Barreda, Gracie Guillen, Olivia Villarreal and Olga Rivera, for allowing me to join you in this precious moment. You all made my 45-year stint as a BISD teacher very memorable. I am still very proud of you.
Remember — if you don’t behave, I will have you run some 440s.
Judi “J.Rod” Rodriguez
Retired BISD teacher, coach, administrator
Brownsville
LETTERS — Limit letters to 300 words; all letters are subject to editing. Mail: P.O. Box 3267, McAllen, TX78502-3267; Email: [email protected]
