An Open Letter To Jo Ratzinger
Dear Jo,
Seeing as this is my first letter to you, I'd better put it in some sort of context.
Firstly, you'll have noticed that I addressed you informally. Well, I don't know for sure if you've ever been known as plain old Jo (as I am) but, assuming your peers, in your younger years, were like most children, it seems likely that they called you 'Jo'. Be that as it may, I'll be happy to address you as Joseph in the future, if you'd prefer it. Just let me know, okay?
Secondly, the reason for my informal approach is that I'm not looking for an 'official response', but rather to talk to the man 'behind the façade'. Besides, to be absolutely candid, I'm not expecting a direct response of any kind, but that's not an issue for me (you'll see why later).
Thirdly, I had to make this an open letter, even though it's personal in nature, because, search as I might on your website, I couldn't find any contact information
Anyway, if you get a few spare minutes when you're feeling relaxed and contented, with not much else to do, perhaps you'll be curious enough to peruse the rest of my letter to find out what prompted me to write it.
Still with me? Good. Because, you see, there are several things which I'm puzzled about. One of them, which seems both trivial and serious at the same time, is Leviticus.
Yes, I know. Sigh...not that again. But that's the point. Why not get it sorted? There's so much 'iffy' stuff in there, and it's easy pickings for anyone who wants to have a pop at Christianity.
I couldn't manage to wade through it all, sentence by sentence, but here's some of the 'highlights' I picked up at BibleGateway.com (I use the Contemporary English Version alongside the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition, it makes it easier to understand).
3:16 ... All the fat shall be the Lord's.
3:17 By a perpetual law for your generations, and in all your habitations: neither blood nor fat shall you eat at all.
11:1-47 About what you can eat
12:1-8 About what women must do after giving birth
13:1-59 About skin diseases
14:33-57 About mildew in houses
17:10-14 About eating blood
18:1-23 About sexual relations
20:1-27 About death penalty offences
24:10-22 More punishments
26:14-29 "Vengeance is mine..."?
Unless I'm much mistaken, putting people to death for cursing their parents, for example, isn't any longer preached as the right thing to do. Times have changed, as have the rules of conduct we are expected to adhere to, and the methods used to enforce compliance.
It may not seem to have much in common with 'the word of God', but in the world of computer programming, when a construct in a computing language is considered out of date, and planned to be phased out, but still available for use, the manual is updated so the construct in question is clearly marked as deprecated.
As it happens, Wiktionary gives the etymology of 'deprecated' as: from Latin deprecatus, past participle of deprecari (“to pray against (a present or impending evil), pray for, intercede for (that which is in danger), rarely imprecate”), from de (“off”) + precari (“to pray”). Which rather neatly brings me to the purpose of this letter.
If I understand it correctly, then you, in your official capacity, are as close to the Lord who features in the book of Leviticus as it is possible for a human to get. So, why don't you ask him what to do about Leviticus? After all, it needn't be a complicated question. Simply ask if it should be deprecated, or maybe just ditched altogether. There'd be some real kudos in getting a definitive answer (and it'd be 'one in the eye' for your detractors - and Lord knows there are a few of them who've been having a bit of a field day of late, what with all the scandals and what have you).
Well, that's about it for this letter. I know what I've written about might not seem so important in the grand scheme of things (although some of that Leviticus stuff is pretty horrendous), but wouldn't it be a massive credibility boost (for very little effort) if you could come out and say, "Leviticus is deprecated/ditched - and that's official. Please mark all bibles accordingly."
Anyway, I'll let you get back to pontificating now.
Thanks for your time.
All the best.
Till next time.
Jo
