Don't do that, it's BAD for you!

Coffee is bad for you. No it's not, it's GOOD for you!

OK, sugar is bad for you. No it's not, sugar is good for you!

Red meat and eggs are bad for you. No, they are GOOD for you!

Well, a couple of ounces of alcohol is good for you. No it's not, alcohol is BAD for you!

Who knows what is what anymore. Take just about anything or any situation and there are the pluses and minuses for each side.

The same thing goes for life and living in general.

In the past there have been rumours and stories about all kinds of things that weren't true but caught the public imagination.

"It was the Jews who killed Christ!" No it wasn't, it was the Romans! Who else did you think it was, the Mexicans?

Columbus discovered America. No it wasn't, it was the Vikings on the east coast and the Indians about 10-15 thousand years before that on the west coast.

Also the Polynesians at some time in the past, down in South America.

Christ was resurrected for our sins! No he wasn't. When and if he was crucified he was dead as a doornail.......... and stayed that way!

God works in mysterious ways............. O.K. I'll give you that one!

The first world war was started by political maneuvering and unrest in the Balkans!

No it wasn't, it was a family feud between the royal houses of Europe, the same as always. (Up until then.)

The second world war was started by the Nazi's. No it wasn't, the second world war was started by the heavy conditions and and reparations that were imposed on the German people by the allies after the first world war.

And while we are on the subject.......... the Catholic church turned their back on the Jews during the second world war.

This last one has gained a lot of acceptance in the last while but nothing could be further from the truth!!!

In fact in 1945 the World Jewish Congress donated a great deal of money to the Vatican, with Rabbi Herzog of Jerusalem thanking Pope Pius XII, "for his lifesaving efforts on behalf of the Jews during the occupation of Italy."

When the Pope died in 1958 Golda Meir, then Israeli foreign minister, gave a eulogy at the United Nations praising the man for his efforts on behalf of the Jewish people.

The attacks on the Pope only really began in the 1960s when leftist German playwright Rolf Hochhuth claimed in his play, The Deputy, that the Vatican did little to save the Jews and even collaborated with the Nazis.

Nonsense. As was British author John Cornwall's 1999 book, Hitler's Pope. Its dust jacket featured a photograph of Pope Pius walking past German soldiers.

(It was not explained that the picture was taken long before Hitler came to power and the soldiers were part of the anti-Nazi Wiemar Republic.)

Before he became Pope Pius, Cardinal Pacelli drafted the papal encyclical denouncing Nazi anti-Semitism. The Vatican used its assets to ransom Jews from the Nazis, ran an elaborate escape route and hid Jewish families throughout Italy.

Now I have ranted about how the Bible is not actual history but rather a collection of stories and parables and metaphors about Jesus that were eventually turned into the modern tales of Christ and the basis for the Christian church.

BUT, never mind two thousand year old history, some of the more recent stuff is highly suspect as well.

Your "always trying to set the record straight" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com