Christians angered by Easter-time promotions for blasphemous works about Jesus
Pastor Dale Morgan
Christians angered by Easter-time promotions for **Christians angered by
Easter-time promotions for blasphemous works about Jesus**
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By Rachel Zoll
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11:25 a.m. April 6, 2007
It's a predictable part of the Easter season: The period of reflection
on the Crucifixion and Resurrection has become a popular time for
marketers to roll out works – from the scholarly to the sensational –
that challenge Christianity's core beliefs.
In the last several years, churchgoers have been hit with a steady
stream of blasphemous claims that Jesus didn't die on the cross, that he
had a wife and kids, and that the Bible is a fraud.
Christians across a broad spectrum of belief are angered by the trend.
They accept the freedom to question religion, but wonder why the
assaults come during their faith's most sacred days.
“Why are they doing it now and why are they doing it in such a
provocative way?” asked the Rev. James Martin, a writer and author of
“My Life With the Saints.”
“We have nothing to fear from serious scientific inquiry, but when it's
slanted and leaves out the religious point of view, it's very
misleading. It can all be tied together in a slick package that can be
very compelling.”
This year's outrage for Christians was “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” a
documentary suggesting that a south Jerusalem cave discovered in 1980
contained the remains of Jesus – indicating he wasn't resurrected. The
filmmakers also suggest that Mary Magdalene was buried in the tomb, that
she and Jesus were married, and that a stone box labeled “Judah son of
Jesus” belonged to their son.
The documentary was unveiled six days into Lent by James Cameron,
Oscar-winning director of “Titanic,” who produced the film. Top
archeologists in the U.S. and abroad called that claim and the film's
findings preposterous, but a book based on the documentary quickly
climbed the best-seller list.
“There is more tolerance in the general culture for all things wild and
wacky about Jesus,” said Ben Witherington, a New Testament expert at
Asbury Theological Seminary and author of “What Have They Done With Jesus?”
Last year's Lenten season brought similar affronts.
The paperback edition of Dan Brown's novel “The Da Vinci Code” – about a
Roman Catholic conspiracy to hide Jesus' marriage – was released, along
with Michael Baigent's nonfiction, “The Jesus Papers: Exposing the
Greatest Cover-Up in History.”
Baigent said that Jesus was married and had a child and was not thought
to be divine until long after his era. The author conceded that “we are
short of evidence” backing his claims. Still, his book publicity asked:
“What if everything we have been told about the origins of Christianity
is a lie?”
Other Easters have seen the release of works on the Gnostic gospels –
the religious rival that lost out to orthodox Christianity in ancient
times – and TV specials asserting that Jesus was merely human.
“It's become a rite of passage in the Lenten season,” said Bill Donohue,
head of the Catholic League, an anti-defamation group. “It's not a
matter of 'Let's agree to disagree,' it's a matter of 'Let's undermine
Christianity.'”
For film makers and publishers, it seems only logical to promote
Christian-themed works when millions of Americans are contemplating the
life and death of Christ. Lent, the 40-day period starting on Ash
Wednesday, marks the period Jesus fasted and prayed in the wilderness.
Holy Week follows, with Good Friday commemorating the Crucifixion, and
Easter celebrating the Resurrection.
Cameron and filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici insisted their documentary was
not meant as an attack on faith. Yet, even scholarly works that examine
the historical truth of the biblical story have the capacity to offend,
particularly when they're released at this time of year.
New Testament scholars and archeologists say that, the more outlandish
the claims, the bigger the sales – which increases demand for ideas from
the fringe. They are being presented to a public with little knowledge
of early Christianity reading unfiltered information on the Internet,
experts say.
“Now all you have to do is click on the computer screen,” said Jodi
Magness, a specialist in early Judaism and archaeology at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “That makes it easier for people to
read up about things. The public is presented with information that they
cannot really evaluate.”
Widespread skepticism about faith and a fear of the power of organized
religious groups has contributed to the popularity of books like Brown's
and the Jesus tomb, analysts say. Many Americans seem to suspect that
information is being hidden from them, especially about Gnostic
writings. But Magness said the works have been known to academics for
years, and are only now drawing the attention of the general public.
Scholars have responded to the trend with a raft of books denouncing
“The Da Vinci Code,” explaining why Gnostic gospels were not part of the
New Testament and educating the public on early Christianity and what
the Bible says about Jesus.
Yet Witherington said it's difficult to counter publicity seekers and
media outlets that “fire first and fall back if they need to.”
“We live in a Jesus-haunted culture that's biblically illiterate,”
Witherington said. “Everybody knows who Jesus is. But the actual
knowledge about early Christian history and the Bible is very low in the
culture and even large segments of the church. In that situation,
anything can pass for knowledge about the historical Jesus, even wildly
improbable theories.”