This is the year that I get my religion back. This is the year that I reclaim my believes and put straight what I have danced around for a along time. I am tired of the religious hacks on television, radio and in the pulpit who harangue their congregations with utter nonsense and untruth. I shall endeavor to put straight what has become so twisted.

Let us look first at a couple of misconceptions.

1. God's word, the Bible, is infallible.

Even if we assume that the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, were given straight to Moses from God, humans have been translating for years each time trying to match the meaning of words used generations before to modern meanings. So we get disagreements such as the classic Lord's Prayer"debtors" versus "trespassers" the former meaning forgive us the things we should have done, and the latter our wrong doings. (Trespass had a wide variety of meanings in the days of King James and was not restricted to intentional entering of real property without permission.) Modern translations have attempted to clarify the situation, but every effort to clarify requires the translator to make subjective decisions. It is not at all evident that God is directing any of these labors.

If God's Word is subject to human interpretation there must be some controls. One such control is the idea that only people of faith can interpret and then only while keeping true to the traditions of the Church. Of course sometimes the traditions get complicated. Some in the early Church saw an imminent return of Christ so marriage and procreation were considered unnecessary. Others felt that it would take longer thus family and work were important to the preservation of the society of believers.