Did you Buy your Bible from Rupert Murdoch?

Say it ain’t so!

Would you buy a Bible from Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corporation?

You probably already have.

His empire across the English speaking world includes not only the troubled tabs in the phone hacking scandal, as well as Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, but also Zondervan, the world’s largest publisher of Bibles, which he’s owned for 23 years.

Will Braun observes at the Holy Moly Blog: 

Zondervan … owns exclusive North American print rights to the popular New International Version of the Bible which it says has sold over 300 million copies worldwide. Zondervan also publishes books by leading Christian authors like Rick Warren (over 30 million copies of his Purpose Driven Life have been sold), Tim LaHaye, Jim Wallis, Eugene Peterson, Brian McLaren and Shane Claiborne.

This bugs Braun who says God doesn’t need News Corp.,

Bald greed has no place in Bible publishing….

Now Braun acknowledges that perhaps this a teeny redeeming gesture for Murdoch who, he notes “was awarded a papal knighthood by Pope John Paul II in 1998.” (It’s an honorary title given to people of “unblemished character,” including non-Catholics, who have worked for the good of society.)

And maybe, Braun writes, the link is too tenous for a world with bigger woes than

… the ethics of Bible publishing … It’s just that I believe there should be absolutely no link at all. Bald greed has no place in Bible publishing…

We do not need to accept this arrangement. Christianity does not need to be about the best and biggest deal, and we can trust that the Good News does not require the help of an unscrupulous empire…

Food for thought…

And having read the above, I went through my modest library and sadly now too have to admit that there are more than a few Zondervan’s including the NIV Archaeological Study Bible and NIV Study Bible. Need I repent?

On a more positive note, I must say that I am now (and have been for a while) focusing on and using primarily Bibles from Ignatius. It makes me feel a lot better…

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Introduction to Catholicism

101

The above video was over at The Scared Page in a post by Dr Michael Barber that has a wealth of information. Check it out!

Dr Zahi Hawass Fired, Again

‘Real Indiana Jones’ sacked as keeper of Egypt’s heritage.

The Telegraph reports:

… Zahi Hawass, the public face of the pyramids, has become the latest casualty of the revolution sweeping the Egyptian government after being sacked as minister of antiquities.

Dr Hawass was head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities for 10 years, and before that in charge of the Pyramids and Sphinx on the Giza plateau outside Cairo. He staged regular press conferences unveiling new discoveries from the time of the pharaohs.

In honour of his claim that the film producer George Lucas consulted him before creating the character of Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford in films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, he was rarely seen without a large fedora hat.

But after being made minister of antiquities in one of Hosni Mubarak’s last acts as president, he has been sacked to appease growing hostility from anti-government protesters, not least archaeologists fed up with his style of management.

Social networking sites like Twitter were flooded with inevitable jokes, from “the Curse of the Mummy strikes” to comments such as “Zahi Hawass to no longer appear in every single TV special on Egypt”. Some were simpler, saying, “Please take your hat with you.”…

There’s more here.

Irish Catholic Dioceses to be Restructured

Following the publication of the results of the apostolic visitation of four Irish archdioceses, the Holy See will “reduce the number of Irish dioceses” and “appoint surprise candidates to newly-amalgamated dioceses,” according to Kieron Wood, writing in the Sunday Business Post.

Three of Ireland’s 26 sees–Cloyne, Kildare and Leighlin, and Limerick–are vacant following resignations tendered in the wake of the sex-abuse scandals, and an additional three have bishops over the age of 75.

The above was here and you can read here for further information.