Answers could have been any number of things: One or two of the Beatitudes, the Our Father, how to fast properly, judge not, do unto others, etc. etc. etc. It was not a long text but all of us know it, on some level. But nobody did. Answe0rs included the doctrine of the Trinity, the St. Joseph’s catechism (my absolute favorite), or, for the more fundamentalist-inclined in my classes, a whopping good anti-Catholic line or a text out of St. Paul’s. Occasionally a piece of the Old Testament. The Sermon on the Mount? What was that?

The assignment was around the time of the issue of universal literacy, and I remember one of the articles I read on the issue was that (in the 50s, no less!) some student thought that Mary had been married to Moses!

Meanwhile, the Barbarians are at the gates, threatening all of us–including those who would not believe in God at all. They would burn all our libraries and destroy all the great artwork, and what do we do? We squabble and quarrel at each other. Last night I read the most depressing blog about the limbo thing–the fundamentalists and atheists spent hours at the throats of Catholics, as though some Inquisitor had had them locked up all these years because they had denied limbo. I never read so many stupid people in one place in my life. I stopped in here, I suppose, to vent and kick a little. We need to return to serious re-education in our churches. My own Catholic upbringing had many benefits, but we had little direct Bible or Church reading from about when I was age 8-age 12 or so, and had I not been fabulously interested in it all I should never have bothered. I look at my siblings now, and their children, and I see that they are very much affected by the loss of Catholic background. My brother-in-law, a non-Catholic and a snow-bunny/Easter-bunny, is full of questions about the DaVinci code, and why shouldn’t he be? A recent study says that a lot of these recent liturgical innovations–shaking hands, hugging, etc., are not geared for men, and that’s why more women go church that men. This is true in a lot of denominations besides Catholics, they’re saying. And my brother-in-law is surely the last on earth for huggy-kissy stuff.

Meanwhile, how about going back to some ethics, if nothing else? Of course people will complain about imposing religion, no matter how we do it, but we could balance out any Christian texts with the Ten Commandments–Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant. A couple parables, Christian and Jewish, and whatever works from medeival Judaism. Then find a few appropriate Moslem texts, there are such things, some surahs about daily life similar to those Judeo-Christian writings. There are no end to ethical teachings, from Confucious to Ba’hai, about treating other people well, and to say the least it’s high time we put that back in our education system somewhere. Looking these things up on the internet, some editors include Shakespeare as such a writer.

So, anyhow, how about starting with the Sermon on the Mount?

you need to put the church in a box video on you site!