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{"id":2032,"date":"2013-03-03T19:57:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T19:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/03\/a-person-who-had-a-fig-tree.html"},"modified":"2013-03-03T19:57:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-03T19:57:00","slug":"a-person-who-had-a-fig-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/03\/a-person-who-had-a-fig-tree.html","title":{"rendered":"A person who had a fig tree?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Really? \u00a0That\u2019s one of the problems I have with the New American Bible translation<\/a> endorsed and used exclusively \u00a0in American Catholic Masses. \u00a0A person didn\u2019t have a fig tree. \u00a0A man did. \u00a0How do I know his gender? \u00a0Easy, read:

<\/span>\u201cThere once was a person <\/i>who had a fig tree planted in his <\/i><\/b>orchard,\u00a0<\/span>
and when he<\/i><\/b> came in search of fruit on it but found none,<\/span>
he<\/i><\/b> said to the gardener,<\/span>
\u2018For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree\u00a0<\/span>
but have found none.<\/span>
So cut it down.<\/span>
Why should it exhaust the soil?\u2019<\/span>
He said to him<\/i><\/b> in reply,<\/span>
\u2018Sir<\/i><\/b>, leave it for this year also,\u00a0<\/span>
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;\u00a0<\/span>
it may bear fruit in the future.<\/span>
If not you can cut it down.\u2019\u201d (Emphasis mine)\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You see, the continued and repeated use of the masculine third person singular pronoun proves it was a he. \u00a0I have no problem with translating Brothers as Brothers and Sisters when it is clear that the meaning was all people. \u00a0I have no problem with translating Men to People when, again, the intent is the whole of humanity, male and female alike.<\/p>\n

But this is a clear and flagrant case of appeasing the great PC brother. \u00a0This is PC revisionism and nothing less. \u00a0I know it\u2019s a small, almost\u00a0insignificant\u00a0thing. \u00a0So what Dave? \u00a0Get a grip man! \u00a0Who cares? \u00a0Well, I care. \u00a0Because, to be\u00a0brutally\u00a0honest, like so much that is modern PC censorship (and Heston was right, PC is simply censorship with increasingly diminishing manners), it is dishonest. \u00a0Call it C.E. rather than A.D. all you want, but it still references the life and times of He Whose Name Cannot Be Mentioned. <\/p>\n

And use \u2018a person\u2019 when it\u2019s beyond clear that the individual is a man, and you\u2019ve just been slightly less than honest, and that dealing with nothing less than Holy Scripture. \u00a0Sometimes when Catholics call for a Church with more backbone, they\u2019re smacked down and asked if they would want the\u00a0Church\u00a0to come down on them. \u00a0Would I want the Church to come down that hard on me? \u00a0Would I want the Church to say \u2018it is as it is, suck on it\u2019? <\/p>\n

Well, yeah. \u00a0For one thing, it has. \u00a0After years pounding on the doors at Canossa Castle, I\u2019ve been told there\u2019s no room in the inn for former Protestant Clergy. \u00a0At least not from my tradition. \u00a0At least not for now. That\u2019s that. \u00a0It is what it is. \u00a0For whatever reasons, whether I\u2019m right or not in guessing what reasons might be<\/a>, the winds have changed and are blowing in different directions than the ones that carried the Hahns and Grodis into a life of Catholic lay ministry, or even the Ray Rylands or the Longeneckers into ordained\u00a0priestly\u00a0ministry. \u00a0But that\u2019s what comes of being Catholic. \u00a0It is\u00a0what\u00a0it is. \u00a0The Church has spoken.<\/p>\n

In my few years as a Catholic, I\u2019ve gotten used to the Church saying it is as it is. \u00a0So yes, I\u2019d be happy to have the\u00a0Church\u00a0start saying it a little more across the board. \u00a0Tell feminist sensitivities and progressives calling for radical change that they can deal with it. \u00a0We don\u2019t\u00a0have\u00a0to go and rewrite all of Scripture, even dishonestly, to appease them. \u00a0Start telling it straight. \u00a0You can\u2019t say \u2018take up your cross and follow the Savior\u2019, only to turn around and start rewriting words like cross and Savior in the hopes of appealing to our post-modern generation. \u00a0Take it from one who spent years along side mainline Protestants and\u00a0denominations\u00a0descended from the traditions of Bultmann and John Dominic Crossan, any attempts to compromise with a movement whose roots are diametrically opposed to the foundations of the Christian universe are doomed to fail, no matter how trivial the compromises first appear. \u00a0Being less than sincere in our interpretations of Scripture in order to contribute to the failure is just heaping coals on an already burning flame.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"