“I’m a former Protestant, who was always warned not to read certain passages of the Bible.”
I don’t know about “Protestants” ‘cause I’ve never been one. Nobody has ever instructed me not to read any passage in the Bible. Every church I’ve ever fellowshipped with makes cover-to-cover Bible reading and personal in-depth Scripture study a very high priority for the common folks. Virtually the entire membership of one such church reads the whole Bible in eight weeks every year. That’s 20 chapters a day. They do it as a congregation, encouraging each other to be avid Bible readers. The churches we attend are congregations where each believer carries his own Bible to church and looks at it when the preacher is preaching, and will question what he said, if need be, according to the Bible.
Of course, you are duty bound to state that any Bible (KJV or otherwise), that doesn’t have the approval of the Vatican, “made changes,” etc. etc., because you really believe that the RCC is the only authorized source for the Bible—any manuscript evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Hills, Wilkinson, Schrivener, Vance and Gipp would mean absolutely nothing to you as scholars on the subject (although they are genuine), simply because they are not Roman Catholics. Nothing would mean anything to you if it didn’t come directly from a RCC-approved source.
I would think that as a preacher for a Biblically centered denomination, that you would want a Bible that would be as close to Christ as possible.
It is clear, factual and objective that it is the original translations from St Jerome that are indeed that. Why would anybody want a Bible that was possibly altered from the original Word of God?
Don’t trust me, a person who has sought truth in non Catholic as well as Catholic faith. Pray and do the research on the translations of the Bible. However, it is more important to have the Catholic Church to demonize, that is up to you. Hate or Truth and Love - your choice.