From: George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Mon Sep 22 2003 - 19:54:30 EDT
John W Burgeson wrote:
>
> George wrote: "> Forgive me, but did someone on this list mentioned the
> name of a school of
> > thought that holds that the royal families of Europe descended from
> supposed
> > children of Jesus and Mary Magdalene?
>
> To call such a view a "school of thought" would be unfair to both
> "schools" and
> "thought"."
>
> I beg to differ. The sect still exists in the south of France. One may
> deem them as heretics, but they exist, have their theologies and worship
> rituals, etc. At one time they were a fair size body of Christians; there
> were wars of extermination which they lost and were reduced in size to a
> remnant by "real Christians."
>
> It has been a year since I studied them -- that part of Christian History
> was a 3 or 4 minute tangential point in one lecture and maybe a page or
> two in the text. I seem to recall the name "Parsival" as being associated
> with it, but that may not be so.
It sounds as if you may be referring to the Albigenses/Cathari, though I wasn't
aware that these ideas about Mary M were part of their belief system - which was
basically gnostic. & I don't recall any connection with the Parsival story - with which
I'm moderately familiar. In any case, being persecuted doesn't lend any moral or
intellectual cachet to a group. I can think that it's wrong to persecute Jehovah's
Witnesses or Mormons while still thinking that their distinctive beliefs are absurd.
You also said in aanother post on this thread:
> I heard it somewhere where Luther once thought that Jesus and Ms.
> Magdalene might have been husband and wife. But that may just be an idle
> rumor.
>
> Suppose I thought it might be so? Would this be a reason to consider me
> as a non-Christian? Suppose I held that it was a fact?
Someone else told me that they had seen this statement about Luther in a
recent magazine article. I know of nowhere Luther said anything like this, would be
very surprised if he did, & won't believe it until the reference in the Weimar Ausgabe
is supplied & checked. People feel free to attribute all kinds of things to Luther. A
few years ago Time magazine had him condemn not only Copernicus but Kepler - which
couldn't have been easy since Kepler wasn't born till 20 years after Luther died.
& as to your last question - no, I don't think believing that Jesus & MM were
married would ipso facto make you a non-Christian. My point was not that but that it is
a claim with absolutely no factual support. & remember that the claim in question (note
our subject line) is also that the royal houses of Europe are descended from them. A
person can believe that only if he or she knows no European history.
Let a thousand flowers bloom! Remember that I have the honor of having been
expelled from the International Flat Earth Society. But I will call a loon a loon.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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