Ancient Papyrus Saying Jesus Had a Wife Sends Christians to the Streets Rioting and Killing

Usually the anti Christian bigots, secularists, atheists, wait until Christmas before trying to chip away at some Christian value or belief. They're jumping the gun a bit on this one.

A tiny piece of papyrus, 1.5 inches by 3 inches, has been found with a quote "Jesus said to them my wife". This dates from the 4th century CE. and is Coptic.

A bit about the Copts and Gnostisim. They are outside traditional Orthodox Christianity, and as such are heretical. The traditional Christian creed is Jesus died and was resurrected for our salvation, he was both divine spirit and human. Gnosticism sees Jesus as a liberator and teacher. They believe the physical, Earth, is inherently evil, and reject the notion of God creating a perfect physical paradise, then Man (Adam and Eve) rejected Him causing sin and evil and the destruction of earthly paradise. Salvation, say the Copts, is not obtained through acceptance of Jesus Christ, but through the esoteric knowledge only they understand. I have a hard time wrapping my head around this one, Docetism, that Jesus was a Spirit that only appeared human to us lesser beings. There's much more to this of course, more here.

So we have this group that rejects the Nicene Creed and the Apostle's Creed, which are essentially the foundations of Christianity. This is what the anti Christian secularist Jurassic Press and other atheists are using in this newest attack on Christianity.

There has been no full testing of the piece of papyrus yet, so knowledge of the context and provenance of the papyrus is little to nothing. Would that the anti Christian secularist Jurassic Press be so supportive of actual Scripture.

Here's some Jurassic Press breathless quotes.

Good Morning America on ABC, Elizabeth Vargas: "Real-life Da Vinci Code. "Christianity's biggest mysteries about to be solved. The tiny scrap of paper that could prove Jesus had a wife. Why this faded fragment might solve an age-old question." 

 Alleged reporter Anne Thompson as part of her intro on NBC's Today: "Watch out for the lightning bolts that are sure to strike us."  Really Anne? Moving on: "Now King says early Christians argued over whether it was better or not to marry and it wasn't until after a century of Jesus' death that he began to use his marital status to support their positions. You can bet this discovery will do the same today all around the country, and the world. 

Vargas again: "There's been for centuries debate whether Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus, because of the Gnostic Gospels. A whole set of gospels claim in fact that was true. It would've been very unusual for a man at that time, a Jewish man not to be married."

Karen L. King, the Harvard Divinity School professor who received the fragment.

http://youtu.be/vlmoILJmH4M

King is also outside Orthodox/Traditional Christianity, since she believes the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Judas are authentic and advocates for them. They have long since been rejected as part of Christian canon. King has a lot of critics and detractors both secular and in the religious/theological/historical communities. This was not widely reported. Catholic League's Bill Donahue: "King is known for her fertile imagination. For example, she previously claimed that Mary Magdalene was one of the apostles. Even better, in the book in which she made this extraordinary claim, she “rejects His, Jesus’ suffering and death as the path to eternal life.” Not much left after that. Donahue article here.

All said and done, not authenticated, written 4 centuries after Jesus by heretics, which of course the anti Christian press gloms onto. 

Faith, Secularism, Obama Administration

Yesterday Obama met with "secular leaders", taking a break from meeting with celebrities (the number of 'B' listers is amazing, see TMZ) to meet with anti-religious people. Some of the groups represented were the Secular Coalition of America, Sean Faircloth, executive director; Kathleen Johnson, vice president of American Atheists and Jason Torpy of Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

That's fine, forming private groups to represent your interests. There were Executive Branch groups too, that attended the meeting. The Office of Public Engagement, and the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (what do these guys do?), and the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department, Mazen Basrawi.

The secular groups were there to emphasize three issues. They want to close any legal loopholes for parents that don't provide medical care to their kids for religious reasons, ensure that there's no proselytizing or religious discrimination in the military, and religious social services (receiving government financial assistance) have to provide services to whomever the government says they have to. I read into the military religious discrimination point that it'll be okay for atheists and other secularists to have a say, but if you're a person of faith, shut the hell up. Regarding religious social services, it's better to have children suffer than help get them adopted.

The slam against religious social services is problematic. For example, The Archdiocese of Washington, DC has had to suspend its foster care program. The DC city council has passed a law legalizing same sex marriage, and says city contractors have to recognize the marriages. The Catholic service would be forced to put children in homosexual foster homes. This can't be obeyed by the Catholic Church for obvious reasons. Right now the result is adoption services have been suspended; not just in DC but in San Francisco and Boston where similar laws were passed.

We have a problem with the First Amendment violation of 'free exercise of religion'.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League: "If Planned Parenthood were told that as a condition of public funding it had to refer Catholic women having second thoughts about abortion to a crisis pregnancy center, it would scream violation of church and state, refuse the money and end this program."

This all is a small piece the Statist government of Obama and the Democrats must do. In history, every Statist government has to drive out religion so the State can fill the void left. Then people will worship the State. God gives us a choice whether to believe, obey, or worship Him. The State not so much; obey or be imprisoned, or have your earnings confiscated. I'd rather have a choice.

Another indication of the anti-religious bent of this Administration is secularist Harry Knox that runs Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. I posted earlier about this character here.