such small hands

Travails of a Christian News Anchor

Do the principles of journalism ethics conflict with a journalist’s personal First Amendment rights? The question is being debated in a conflict between Detroit TV station WXYZ and longtime anchor Frank Turner. Turner makes no secret of his Christian faith, as I noted here in an earlier post. He contends the TV station is discriminating against him because he wants to do a radio show on a local Christian station.

Does it just have to do with his faith? After all, Detroit Free Press sports columnist Mitch Albom is also a talk-radio-show host. Does that compromise Mitch’s objectivity?

The Gospel of Judas

So the media are all going gaga over this “new” gospel recently translated that makes Judas the hero because he betrayed Christ at his own request, to free him from his body.

Pardon me while I yawn.

Come on, people, why do we have to keep going over this? The Gospel of Judas has all the hallmarks of the other Gnostic gospels that came out of the 2nd-3rd centuries. Secret knowledge required for salvation? Check. Spirit = good, body = bad? Check. It’s cast from the same mold as the Gnostic gospels we all know thanks to Dan Brown’s little best-seller, the gospels of Thomas, Philip and Mary Magdalene.

It’s an old, old heresy. You’d think it would have been enough for the church fathers to slap it down in the 3rd 2nd century (Irenaeus in "Against All Heresies" about 180 A.D.). But I guess not. We’re so illiterate about the Bible and church history, we’ll fall for just about anything.

Even some of our ancient foe’s oldest lies.

Jesus Walked on an Ice Floe

Secret Agent Man comments:

When I wasn't a Christian, I knew lots of people who relegated Christianity to a light and flimsy place in human thought. Eventually it struck me that they behaved like people who live with a terrifying secret. They were ready, even eager, to accept any explanation so long as it kept them from opening that dreaded door. I found that "anti-witness" very intriguing.

You know, if Christianity is all a bunch of fabrications, why do people spend so much time and money trying to debunk it? Why not go after any of the other world religions? Could it be that accepting the reality of a God who can intervene in human affairs might require people to change their lives?