AboutBro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM, L.Th. Expertise I am a Catholic apologist, catechist, spiritual director, and spiritual warfare/deliverance counselor holding a degree of Licentiate in Theology. Questions dealing with the Catholic Faith will be answered according to official Church teachings, where such official teachings exist, and according to solid principles taught by the Church and the saints on areas where there is no specific Church teaching. I am a one-hundred-percent loyal and obedient to the Pope and Magisterium of the Church. If you want to know the TRUE SCOOP of Church teaching, here is the place to get it.
2) Apologetics and Catechesis primarily offered through a Catholic Q&A (plus volunteering on expert.com); and
3) Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare: involving many things ranging from investigating "haunted houses," to counseling with demonized people, to dealing with spiritual warfare issues in our society.
Experience I was a Baptist preacher, Bible teacher, and evangelist for 15 years before converting to the Catholic Church in 1992.
As a Catholic I have been teaching Bible, Catechetics, apologetics, and evangelism for 14 years. I also have 24 years of pastoral counseling experience and 14 years experience as a Catholic Spiritual Director.
I have been in deliverance ministry since 1986 as a Baptist. After converting to the Catholic Church I continued the spiritual warfare work including counseling, writing, consulting, and teaching workshops, and training Deliverance Counsellors.
In 2002 we began a new apostolate called the St. Padre Pio Center for Deliverance Counseling. This agency offers counseling to those persons who are demonized, and offers training for people who feel called by God to become Deliverance Counsellors. As director of the St. Padre Pio Center I was featured in a series of interviews on Spirtual Warfare on Ave Maria Radio.
Award: Recipient of the prestigious Kaltenborn Foundation Grant.
Organizations In Religion: Catholic Society of Evangelists, Institute on Religious Life, Adoremus: Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Coming Home Network, The Blue Army of our Lady of Fatima, Apostleship of Prayer, Confraternity of Mary, Queen of All Hearts (Montfort Fathers), Confraternity of the Brown Scapular
BR> In Counseling: American Counseling Association, Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling, the International Society for Mental Health Online, and the former National Psychiatric Association. Brother is also currently working with two other counselors to form a new association called the American Nouthethic Association of Catholic Counselors. This association is not yet operational.
In Website Design: HTML Writers Guild, the International Webmasters Association, and the Good News Web Designers Association.
In Creative Writing: Academy of American Poets, the Association of Authors and Publishers, and is listed as Editor and Publisher of St. Michael House Press and Writers House Press in the International Directory of Small Presses and Little Magazines and the WritersNet Online Directory
Publications Religious Book Publications include: +"Regula Sanctus Michaelis" (The Rule of St. Michael) +"Three Secret Strategies of Satan and Other Essays" +"St. Michael's Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog" +"Hope, Help, Victory: A Spiritual Warfare Workshop" +"St. Michael’s Deliverance Counseling Manual" +If God Wants This of Me: The Story of a Baptist Minister Turn Catholic Friar" (forthcoming)
Poetry Publications and Credits: Book: "Only Silence is Shame" Magazines & Readings: published in various magazines and conducted numerous readings
Listed: "Who's Who is U.S. Editors, Writers, and Poets" and the "International Authors and Poets Who's Who" out of London in the 1980s
Other Publications: Book: "The Wilder Letters" (book of essays)
Book: "The Falling Torch: Our Democracy in Crisis"
Question Thank you for responding and I will clarify the Tamar I am interested in is Judah's daughter-in-law. The question is how does Tamar fit into the bible and how does it relate to today's society.
Answer Dear David:
Tamar is critically important in God's Salvation Plan. It is through Judah's family line, through Tamar, that leads to David and to Jesus. Thus Tamar has a major influence on Salvation History. (Tamar is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:3).
There is a lot going on here. The story is most likely related and a parallelism with the story of Joseph in the sense that both tribes became leading ones and/or comparing the behavior of Judah who takes Tamar thinking she is a prostitute, and the chastity of Joseph in the face of the temptation set him by Potiphar's wife.
Tamar is a poor widow who defends her rights very cleverly and decisively. Judah, who goes against established law, is trapped by his fault and eventually has to recognize Tamar's rights.
The rights that Tamar was seeking was to have children by the same bloodline of her dead husband. According to Levirate law (cf. Deut 25:5), if a married man died without children, his brother or nearest relative was obliged to marry his widow in order to give the dead man descendents, because the first male child of this marriage was legally considered to be the son and heir of the dead man and so his property could pass to that son.
This Levitical Law and this story envisions the future situation of our Lord Jesus. The legal elements of this story is the basis of how Jesus inherited the throne of David. The Blessed Mary, who is a descendent of David gives Jesus the Davidic bloodline. Joseph, as a descendent of David, gives Jesus the legal inheritance of the line of David even though Joseph was not the blood father of Jesus.
Judah told his son, Onan, to take Tamar as his wife to give Onan's brother sons. Onan, of course, did have sex with Tamar but let his seed fall on the ground to prevent pregnancy.
According to Law Onan would not only give his brother children, but would also control his brother's wealth. Onan, however, knew that the children would not be legally his and the future children would eventually inherit the wealth of the dead brother and Onan would lose control of the wealth.
Judah, in response to this sin of Onan, told Tamar to live in his household and wait until Judah's son, Shelah grew up. This delaying tactic on the part of Judah, and one that may not ever happen since there was no guarantee that Shelah would even live to adulthood, sets the stage for the plans of Tamar to secure her rights.
Tamar dressed up like a prostitute to trick Judah to have sex with her and thereby become pregnant with his child, which, of course, provides her with a son in the line of Judah, and her husband a descendent. This was her goal and her right that Judah was denying to her. To trick Judah was the only way, albeit shrewd way, to gain her goal.
About three months later Judah was told that Tamar had conceived a child in harlotry. Judah commanded that Tamar be burned at the stake. This sentence is based upon the sin Judah "thinks" she committed.
That is the story. This story is critical to Salvation History, as I mentioned earlier, for through Tamar trickery of Judah the line of David would come. But as to modern day meaning, I am not sure.
The story is a historical account involving Law and morality. It is a story that shows that God's will shall be accomplished despite of the sins of people. It shows us that God's Salvation History cannot be blocked or corrupted by man.
There is nothing in today's world that will prevent God's Salvation History from continuing to its completion. There is no sin or rebellion of man that can keep Salvation History from running its course.
I do not know what your class is doing with this, but if there is an attempt to make this story some sort of story about women's rights and feminism, such an assertion would be a demonically inspired one.
