What's with Readers doing real time politically correct substitutions of God's Word?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Edward_H
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I have come to realize that people read what they are used to reading. Unless the Missal has different text from the Bible used by the lectors, I’ve noticed differences that I didn’t think were “PC,” just differences.

Funny thing about the human mind: it doesn’t “see” what’s actually on the page. It receives (name removed by moderator)ut from the eyes and interprets that (name removed by moderator)ut based on what the person has been exposed to. Think of a time when you saw something and didn’t know what it was. Or, think about trying to proofread something immediately after writing it.
 
Well in the case I mentioned, they are absolutely PC related changes. The fellow told me he did it.
 
Someone is always smarter than the Church and needs to tell others.
 
No, compare it to the Lectionary being used, they are often different.
 
No…I’ve said like in 5 different places above…that I checked my hand missal against the very book that this fellow was reading and there was no difference between what I read and with what he should have read, but was too prideful to read, and instead substituted his own words.
 
Edward_H said:
Why do some people feel compelled to change the word of God when they are “readers” at Mass?
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You ask the question, yet you know what’s with them. They have an agenda. An agenda your pastor seems unwilling to stop by giving directives to cut it out or no longer be selected as a reader. An agenda the scheduler is unwilling to address by continuing to schedule a person unfit for the ministry. It does not matter that is person continues to “volunteer” his/her name, he/she need not be selected if he/she cannot follow instructions.

Next stop if your pastor won’t correct it: chancery office for help.
 
Edward_H said:
Well in the case I mentioned, they are absolutely PC related changes. The fellow told me he did it.
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The lector ought to be reading the text he is given to read, without interposing his own private interpretation—not to mention his own personal vanity—between Holy Scripture and the people. However, it’s not your job to tell him that, it’s the pastor’s job. You might discreetly ask the pastor whether he has noticed what’s going on, and if so, whether he’s okay with that.
 
Was it a particular reader and did he/she do it regularly? A mistake may be excusable but not intentionally changing the text. If it was done on purpose, the priest should know about it and strict action needs to be taken. The words in the lectionary should not be changed. That’s as far as I know and from experience being a lector as far as I can remember in my life.

It is not up to the lector to change the text. It involves everyone who would expect the reading in fidelity to the text.

God bless.
 
Your hand missal may have outdated texts.

If you are in the US, check http://www.usccb.org/ to read the official texts for that day. Should you see that your lay readers are taking liberties with the texts, speak to the Pastor.
 
I don’t like it. I really, really don’t like it. I’ve been a reader, I know the text is correct and why they feel they have to change it is beyond me.
 
I checked. I compared my hand missal (the Daily Roman Missal) with the Roman Missal on the ambo. Matched.
 
1ke said:
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Edward_H:
Why do some people feel compelled to change the word of God when they are “readers” at Mass?
Click to expand...
You ask the question, yet you know what’s with them. They have an agenda. An agenda your pastor seems unwilling to stop by giving directives to cut it out or no longer be selected as a reader. An agenda the scheduler is unwilling to address by continuing to schedule a person unfit for the ministry. It does not matter that is person continues to “volunteer” his/her name, he/she need not be selected if he/she cannot follow instructions.

Next stop if your pastor won’t correct it: chancery office for help.
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Well said.

We all know the reason. We all know the difference between an accidental change and one done intentionally.

There’s no excuse for allowing this to happen.
 
The only substitution I’ve noticed is the regular replacement of brethren or brothers with ‘brothers and sisters’ and that’s at Mass and Vespers and not by the lectors.

I read the first reading (Genesis 9:8-15) last Sunday) and despite the lectionary use of ‘Myself’ instead of ‘Me’ - why don’t folks use ‘Me’ any more?! - I still read ‘Myself’. The Lord was probably smiling as he knows my weakness for correcting punctuation and poor grammar! Don’t get me started on ‘You and I’ or we’ll be here all night!
 
Ah, the Jerusalem Bible? I don’t see “myself” used there in other versions.
 
Fauken said:
Are you sure it’s not just an honest mistake? As a former Lector myself, I’d trip over the words and make accidental “substitutions”. I was told so long as it wasn’t a major speaking error (“For God so HATED the world”, as an example), to just roll with it.
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That’s go against how I was trained as a lector. In my training, it was made very clear and emphasized that if I misread something, that I should go back and reread it correctly. The only thing was I told that I shouldn’t be too worried about was the precise pronunciation of some of the more obscure names of people and place names — just be consistent with the pronunciation of such names.
 
PeterT said:
That’s go against how I was trained as a lector. In my training, it was made very clear and emphasized that if I misread something, that I should go back and reread it correctly
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I think it just goes to show how parishes differ. I was a lector/reader once and they were so particular on how fluent we read it. So if we accidentally say something that doesn’t affect the meaning of the passage, we should not go back and read it again. So sometimes I think it’s best if we don’t assume the worst.

That being said, it’s annoying to constantly change it lol. I didn’t know it was a big issue. My parish wasn’t so particular over it so this is new to me??
 
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Edward_H said:
I checked. I compared my hand missal (the Daily Roman Missal) with the Roman Missal on the ambo. Matched.
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I think you mean the Lectionary. The Roman Missal is usually kept on the altar, not the ambo. It’s the Lecctionary that’s kept on the ambo.

Question: is your church located in the United States or in another country? I ask because if you were located in Canada, the Lectionary would be based the NRSV-CE Bible and not the NAB Bible that the U.S. Lectionary is based on. The NRSV-CE Bible that they use in Canada contains a lot more inclusive language than the NAB.
 
bottom line: the reader didn’t read the words in front of him. I checked.
 
Edward_H said:
Well in the case I mentioned, they are absolutely PC related changes. The fellow told me he did it
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It may be time to take the St. Nicholas road…

Next time he changes the reading in PC way, wait for him after Mass and slap him as hard as you can. 😂😌
 
This is not funny at all.
Advocating violence because you don’t like something is part of the reason the US has the social issues it does.
 
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