Page 102 - MY GREAT LOVE FOR JESUS LED ME TO TROUTH

options[5] given to those who did not want to accept doctrines imposed upon them by

the Catholic Church. As Allah states in His Last Message to humankind, "There is no

compulsion in religion. Truth stands out clear from Error." (Qur'an 2/256).

Today we are witnessing the horrendous consequences of compulsion in relig
ion in different parts of the world. Drug addiction, murder, theft, prosti
tution, corruption, rape and homosexuality are some of the dreadful outcom
e of imposing religion on people who do not believe in it. Besides, the bl
ind following of inherited traditions and erroneous beliefs are by no mean
s bound to lead any nation to success. For this reason, I would like to of
fer at least one alternative that can save lives, rehabilitate alcoholics,
and unite families and society.

The 2002 heartbreaking news of cases of child sex abuse committed by Catho
lic priests in the United States represents only the tip of the iceberg. A
stonishingly, high-ranking officials in the Vatican did not respond to thi
s scandal as though what happened was not an atrocious crime. All they did
was offering payments to victims to remain silent. One report several year
s earlier stated that more than five percent of priests in the USA commit
child sex abuse. Shockingly, this disturbing news took several years to gr
ab the headlines on main TV stations worldwide.

According to a draft survey commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholi
c Bishops in 2004, children accused more than 4,000 priests of sexual abus
e in the years between 1950 and 2002. The survey found that children made
more than 11,000 allegations of sexual abuse by priests. The 4,450 accused
priests are about 4 percent of the 110,000 priests who served during the 5
2 years covered by the study.

That is an astonishing statistic to say the least, but not at all surprisi
ng. The undoubted truth is that if there is any one factor to blame, witho
ut looking at the individual and collective mistakes, then it should be th
e present-day corrupted Bible itself. It is important to note here that ev
en though the Bible, more often than not, calls to moral values, deplorabl
y enough, it includes numerous texts which encourage immoral acts, includi
ng sexually explicit and indecent expressions, and encourage fornication a
nd adultery,<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title="">[6]</a> rape,<a href
="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title="">[7]</a> marital infidelity,<a href="#_f
tn8" name="_ftnref8" title="">[8]</a> alcoholism,<a href="#_ftn9" name="_f
tnref9" title="">^{^[9]}</a> prostitution, incest,

homosexuality,<a href="#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title="">[10]</a> among m
any other immoral acts,<a href="#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title="">[11]</a
> even though the intensity and explicitness of sexual references in some
of these texts are mitigated in some translations through the textual devi
ces of euphemism and deletion. See, for instance, Ezekiel 16/7-23, Ezekiel
23/1-22;<a href="#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title="">[12]</a> 2 Samuel 13/1
, about Amnon son of David falling in love with his sister Tamar, the beau
tiful sister of Absalom son of David;<a href="#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" ti
tle="">[13]</a> 2 Samuel 13/10-14, Amnon raping his own sister Tamar; 2 Sa