by fulltimestudent 31 Replies latest social current
Whether this woman asked these questions of her own accord, or they were written by staffers, is not the point. The real point is how can people in a country with some of the world's best Universities ask such dumb questions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQhMllQ-ODw#at=13
... and if you wonder what Reza Aslan's views are about Jesus, listen to him here, courtesy of All Saints Church in Pasadena a few days ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zi4o242d2s
And, the Amazon page for the book:
And he ripped that woman a new one. However she is probably too ignorant to realize that he did.
There are certainly many varieties of messed up when it comes to faith. Christian scholar turned Muslim is just yet another flavour of religiously confused.
Dr Aslan has a Phd in religion - period. In case you didn't catch that he repeated it several times. The interviewer did the best she could with this peacock.
Her implication is absolutely ludicrous: if someone had to be a Christian in order to write about Jesus, then NT scholar Bart Ehrman for one would be prohibited from writing his books. Is THAT the kind of theologically-driven society she wants to live in?
No real shocker that Faux News cannot handle an intelligent discussion of the topic of his book, so she decides to waste the segment attacking a straw man of their own creation to vent their thinly-veiled anti-Muslim disdain. In sports, it's called "running down the clock" and Fox just offered a wonderful example of it.
They likely need to grant air-time to other views (as well as use it as an opportunity to earn a bit of 'intolerance cred' amongst their faithful flag-waving Christian viewers) to be able to claim they try to present "fair and balanced" analysis to viewers, when it's hardly the case.
Although definitely a "rabble rouser" and one to challenge the status quo, I dunno if I'd go so far as to describe Jesus as a "zealot"; that term is associated with those Jewish sects who advocated violent overthrow of the Roman Empire in the First Century (and which actually WAS done under Bar Kokhba in 134CE, but failed, with major loss of life on both sides).
While some of Jesus disciples demonstrated tendencies suggestive of offering armed resistance (carrying swords, cutting off ears, etc), the account has likely been cleansed to downplay the violent tendencies that eventually led to the Roman-Jewish Wars in real life. If Reza Aslan's argument is only based on evidence such as not charging fees for healing, that's hardly evidence to support a 'zealot' claim.
Adam
I could not believe it. My expectation of Fox News is Zero News and in the sewer. I refuse to watch it for a second. Classic Rupert Murdoch. Based on some experience, I know that many politicians and Fox News "reporters" cannot possibly believe what they say. Rick Santorum and college is my favorite college. Will his children not go to college? No, they will end up at the highest ranked and swankiest elitest school.
Most Americans do not know basic civics. They have no clue how the government works. There was a time centuries ago when TV news and newspapers informed Americans. It helped to level the class playing field in America. There is nothing that brilliant about how America functions. You just need to know some basic cultural facts. The very people who should be sober and place things in perspective are now whoring themselves for ratings. It is not only FOX. I see the same trend at progressive news outlets. FOX does it on a greater and more sordid scale.
Jesus was a Jew. He could not write anything about Christianity. Everything in the book is factual and no news. I learned the basics forty years ago. Also, where did she go to school to not know that outsiders shed the best light on your own culture. We all have biases about our own culture b/c we are in the culture.
I wanted to cry and shoot her with a gun. The one good thing is that Zealot now tops the NYT Bestseller List. Her stupidity, which is not stupidity but pandering to the lowest elements, guaranteed that the author will make a large fortune. Not every Jesus book makes No. 1.
I read The Last Temptation of Christ in college. It transformed me. I loved it. When I heard Scorcese was making a film, it shocked me. How could he get financing? I was going to be in the first showing in NY before the rest of the country. The RC Cardinal of New Yorker held a press conference and ordered all Catholics not to see the film on a severe penalty. Well, that clinched it for thousands of New Yorkers, esp. Roman Catholics. When I arrived at the legendary theatre, about ten ethnic RCs were protesting in a loudspeaker. So many people showed up to see the film based on the Cardinal's recommendation that it took me six hours to get in to see it. The lines were so long. Part of it was very sad. The poor people were protesting. Everyone waiting on line (inline) wore designer jeans and were reading hardcover NYT bestsellers, the Sunday NYT, or the New Yorker. It boils down to class not religion in almost all cases.
no matter what stupid things one person on fox says, they will never and I repeat NEVER be as worthless and hate filled and down right liars /frauds as MS NBC.
Don't Christians write about Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and others? Women write about men, and men write about women. Everybody writes about everybody. So what?
I took religion courses in college about various faiths, and they were all taught by Christians.
Wake-up call!
Faux is owned by Rupert Murdoch and Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Tatal ! Enough said !
