Letter: Jesus and his family

Monday 22 June 1998 23:02 BST

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Jesus and his family

Sir: Robert Card (letter, 20 June) claims that Jesus Christ did not "promote the traditional family". He quotes St Luke's Gospel xiv, 26. Had he looked a few pages earlier, he would have found what Jesus did. At the age of 12, entering rebellious teens, "He went down with them [Mary and Joseph] to Nazareth and lived under their authority" (Luke ii:51).

The devout Jews who heard him years later, outlining what is needed to be his disciple, knew that the word "hate" quoted by Mr Card and applied to the family, meant being sufficiently detached from your own family to follow conscience, if there should be any clash of interests.

HUGH LINDSAY

Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria

The writer was Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle 1974-1992

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