Posted on 04/25/2008 10:27:41 AM PDT by NYer
Washington DC, Apr 24, 2008 / 10:17 pm (CNA).- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is facing criticism for repeatedly attributing an incorrect quotation to the Book of Isaiah that concerns ministering to creation, Cybercast News Service reports.
The speaker has used the quotation at least five times, often in reference to environmental concerns.
The falsely-attributed quotation most recently appeared in her April 22 Earth Day news release, in which Speaker Pelosi said, The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, 'To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.' On this Earth Day, and every day, let us pledge to our children, and our children's children, that they will have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and the opportunity to experience the wonders of nature.
Biblical scholars, however, are at a loss as to the source of Pelosis quotation.
John J. Collins, Holmes professor of Old Testament criticism and interpretation at Yale Divinity School, told Cybercast News Service that quotation is not one that I recognize.
I assume that she means this is a paraphrase, he continued. But it wouldn't be a close paraphrase to anything I know of."
"The quote does not exist in the Old Testament, neither in the New Testament," said Fr. Andreas Höck, a professor of Scripture who teaches in the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver's St. John Vianney Seminary.
"Even in pieces or bits, [it] cannot be found in the Old Testament," he said.
According to Cybercast News Service, Speaker Pelosi has used the quotation before.
In a December, 2005 message to the U.S. House of Representatives, Speaker Pelosi used the quotation after a reference to the prophet Isaiah. Her message read:
"Mr. Speaker, as we leave for this Christmas recess, let us say, 'God bless you' to the American people by voting against this Republican budget and statement of injustice and immorality, and let us not let the special interest goose get fat at the expense of America's children.
"The gentleman from Washington [state], Mr. McDermott, quoted the prophet Isaiah. And as the Bible teaches us, to minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship, to ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us. Let us vote no on this budget as an act of worship and for America's children."
Speaker Pelosi has used the same phrase in at least four statements in 2007: in February remarks before the U.S. House Science and Technology Committees hearings on global warming; in April in congressional remarks before the Easter recess, in which she attributed the quotation to the Old Testament and advocated the reduction of greenhouse gas pollution; in an April speech to the League of Conservation Voters in Washington, D.C. in which she advocating tackling one of humanitys greatest challenges yetglobal warming; and in an October television interview with PBS host Tavis Smiley, in which she said her faith was related to her Democratic values.
Scripture scholars who spoke to Cybercast News Service reflected on whether environmentalism had an explicit scriptural basis.
Mark Goodwin, an associate professor of theology at the University of Dallas, said Pelosis use of the quotation was vague.
'To minister to the needs of creation is an act of worship' doesn't sound right to my ears," Goodwin said. "To minister to the needs of creation'- yes, but not as an act of worship. I'm not sure what she meant by that, and if I were there, I would have raised my hand and asked her to clarify that."
Eric Jenislawski, a theology professor at Christendom College in Virginia, said the Bible teaches in Genesis that man was placed on earth to till it and keep it, but also instructs mankind to fill the earth and subdue it.
Responsible use of the Old Testament, Jenislawski said, cannot divorce the biblical notion of stewardship (that man is obligated to care for God's creation) from the equally important biblical view that the entire natural world was created for man, for him to subdue it and to reign over it.
"Environmentalists who make man subservient to the natural world actually invert the biblical view of man's relationship to the earth," he said.
Ping
You can’t expect Pelosi to know something from the Bible!
The Bible scholars strike again.
I love it when the Dems try to quote scripture. They always get it wrong.
Perhaps she is claiming some private revelation.
You know, in the same spirit that she invents new doctrines like that a person can support abortion and still be a Catholic.
That's right up there with Streisand's manufactured Shakespeare "quote."
Failed Speaker, fails to quote any known scripture.
The woman is a complete embarassment. Grandma has no business being where she is. Truly the worst ever.
What was the Streisand quote?
Even if she got it wrong, she still thinks it’s OK to kill God’s children in their mothers’ wombs. There is no getting around that one.
'To minister to the needs of creation is an act of worship' doesn't sound right to my ears," Goodwin said. "To minister to the needs of creation'- yes, but not as an act of worship. I'm not sure what she meant by that, and if I were there, I would have raised my hand and asked her to clarify that."
There is a lot of vagueness between her ears.
BJS: You know, really good artists have a way of being relevant in their time but great artists are relevant at anytime. So, in the words William Shakespeare,
“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.”
BJS (contd.): Imagine that was written over 400 years ago It’s amazing how history without consciousness is destined to repeat itself. So from the words of William Shakespeare to the words of Irving Berlin ”
Until Ms Pelosi can cough up an appropriate Bible passage, as far as I'm concerned, Ms Pelosi still hasn't taken the cellophane off of her Holy Bible and is unquestioningly and irresponsibly passing along "New Age" perversions of the Holy Scriptures.
Brace yourself.
The following is what Streisand charecterized as a verbatim quote from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
It boggles the mind that she actually thought she could get away with attributing this wretched abuse of English as the work of Shakespeare.
Let us stop expecting politicians to know the Bible. Those days are gone.
It's too bad Fr. Drinan is no longer around to clarify Nancy's exegesis.
I recognize the quote - it’s from Dean’s favorite book of the New Testament, Job...
According to Genesis, man was supposed to "subdue" the earth, and have "dominion... over all the earth."
001:026 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 001:027 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 001:028 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 001:029 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 001:030 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 001:031 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
-PJ
What? A leftist moron making stuff up?
Inconceivable!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.