[biblewonk]

I have a tape of the Gibson interview with Sawyer. Shall I review it? I certainly did not notice any such remark by Gibson. Before I take the trouble please tell me whether you are editorializing in any way or simply relating what you claim are the literal contents of the tape.

I believe she asked him about all those other religions. She asked if people in other religions get to go to heaven and said something like "It's a lot easier to go to heaven if you are a Christian".

FWIW, as a Roman Catholic and devotee of Mary, I recognize the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as a gift of my Savior and the sole atonement necessary for the forgiveness of my sins. I also recognize that Mary cooperated with redemption by giving her assent to bearing the Christ Child fathered by the Holy Ghost by responding to Gabriel: Let it be done unto me according to thy word (the Magnificat) and by faithfully serving her Son. Do you disagree with those statements being Catholic doctrine (documentation?) or with those statements?

I disagree that she had the choice to reject His incarnation. Catholics like to play that choice as if she decided she would go ahead and save mankind therefore we are indebted to her personally. Then there is all of the "stuff" about her person and character and what was "necessary" for Jesus to come to the earth. These are purely manmade requirements.

[BlackElk]

Gabriel did not deliver a threat to her. She had a choice. Considering all that Catholics believe as to Mary, it seems obvious what that choice would be. Nonetheless, it was not forced assent. The message was not: "By the way you have been impregnated, whether you agree or not, by the Holy Ghost and you will bear a child so deal with it." Nor did Gabriel approach Joseph that way.

Mary, as I understand it, simply agreed. If she did not agree, then I have every confidence that God would have found a way to carry out John 3:15. I do not know what personal debt might arise to Mary in regard to the Incarnation. We owe the possibility of our salvation to her Son and to Him alone.

I will pull out the tape but I would expect to find that Gibson said it was easier to go to heaven if you are a Catholic, the question arising in the context of the fact that his wife is Anglican (and the unstated position of the RCC that the Anglican Church lacks apostolic succession according to Leo XIII and therefore lacks the Mass and the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance). It would certainly be easier for any Christian to see heaven than for Hindus or Buddhists or whatever form of pagan, the non-Catholic Christian having less of the fullness of the Faith than the Catholic and the pagans still less so and usually none of the Faith.

I am not stressing these differences between us to aggravate but just to state my suspicions as to the interview and what I, as a Catholic, suspect that Gibson may have said and why before reviewing it. As you may well have a more comprehensive recall of Scripture than I, so I may have an easier feel for Catholic tradition as we Catholics experience it. I will tell you honestly and publicly in either event after reviewing it.