Ecumenical Purpose Of The Orange Catholic Bible

Men, finding no answers to The Sunnah [The Ten Thousand Questions from The Shariah], now apply their own reasoning. All men seek to be enlightened. Religion is but the most ancient and honorable way in which men have striven to make sense out of God's universe. Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of Religion to fit man into this lawfulness.

Much that was called religion has carried an unconscious attitude of hostility toward life. True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty. All must see that the teaching of religion by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. One can know it without fail because it awakens the sensation which tells that this is something one has always known. Something that tells us that this faith hitherto has been too small.

This is because faith has been sorely tested by what religion has become. The blood spilled in the name of someone's god is an affront to God. The one claiming revelation, claiming ownership of the truth is an affront to God. To this end we must accept that not one religion contains all of the truth of the universe. Instead, all religions contain fragments of the truth, and we must identify those fragments and piece them together. Revelation must not be limited to the first communication, it is a universal communication, not a confined divulgement. It must not be old, dead words heard by a few.

Religion must be a real and living thing. Living within the soul, releasing goodness and righteousness. Religion must be the outlet for those who say to themselves, 'I am not who I seek to be.' It must not be an assemblage of the self-satisfied. It is to this endeavour that we, The Commission of Ecumenical Translators, present The Orange Catholic Bible.

Do not live by these words, do not die by them. Digest them slowly, smile when they nourish the soul. Then will it be seen properly what religion should be, after tears are shed to clear the way.

So know this then, that all religions have least one common commandment:
Thou shalt not disfigure the soul.

-Ecumenical Pronouncement of The Commission of Ecumenical Translators.