Dr Paul Allen

The pope has a problem with the Bible. Again. Here’s an excerpt from The New York Times (December 8, 2017 ) “Lost in Translation: The Pope Ponders an Update to Lord’s Prayer” Pope Francis said the common rendering of one line in the prayer—“lead us not into temptation” —was “not a good translation” from ancient texts.“Do not let us fall into temptation,” he suggested, might be better because God does not lead people into temptation; Satan does. “A father doesn’t do that,” the pope said. “He helps you get up right away. What induces into temptation is Satan.” In essence, the pope said, the prayer, from the Book of Matthew , is asking God, “When Satan leads us into temptation, You please, give me a hand.” French Catholics adopted such a linguistic change this week, and the pope suggested that Italian Catholics might want to follow suit. The problem with the Pope’s position is that the Greek does, in fact, say “Lead us not into temptation.” That is a good translation. The words “al...

Christopher Hitchens (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) College-aged millennials today are far more likely than the general population to be religiously unaffiliated. This is true when they are compared to previous generations as well. In fact, the Pew Research Center documents that millennials are the least outwardly religious American generation, where “one in four are unaffiliated with any religion, far more than the share of older adults when they were ages 18 to 29.” Just over 60 percent of millennials say that Christianity is “judgmental,” and 64 percent say that “anti-gay” best describes most churches today. In ministry circles, it has long been reported that of youth raised in homes that were to some degree “ Christian ,” roughly three-quarters will jettison that faith after high school. Just under half of this number will return to some level of church involvement in their late 20s or early 30s. It has long been recognized that experience with an earthly father deeply info...