By Mark for the TIB Network:
From Hugh Hewitt:
Is the Newsweek article the religion reporting equivalent of Rathergate? What accounts for the appearance in a major news magazine of such a biased piece?The article by Meacham could be equated with Rathergate, in that both articles are attempts to frame the debate with faulty "evidence" and/or logic. We all know the story behind Rathergate, and such events as Jayson Blair, etc. This marks a new turn by the MSM (mainstream media) in terms of broadening their assault on traditional values to one of the cores of Christianity, the Virgin Birth and Nativity. This article is an attempt to demystify, to even debunk the story of Christ's birth. What makes it more insidious is that it is presented as a hard news story, and not an editorial. Meacham uses faulty assumptions and his sources are questionable, unbalanced, and in some cases, unhinged. His arguments are flawed, faulty, and show an underlying bias and arrogance that can only be classified as common within the journalistic community. This can be evidenced with Newsweek calling this a hard news story.
Meacham falls prey to the liberal disease of projection. He talks about how in the gospels, Matthew and Luke, especially Luke; had a problem with the birth of Christ. He then makes the bold charge that they stole pieces of other "deific" stories from other traditions and crafted them into this version of the Nativity to suit their purposes. He asserts that they even borrowed from a 40 BC work of Virgil, the Roman playwright. OK, let's think here. It is 60 AD or so. Would a Jewish tax collector and Jewish doctor both, familiar with Hebrew and Greek, really be so familiar with the works of Virgil to steal lines from him? Meacham's assertions of plagiarism and storyshaping create a picture of the Apostles as basically James Carville and Joe Lockhart: let's create an enduring image of our man so we can survive and grow our faith. In other words, this was not about telling the Truth revealed by God, it is a sales pitch by men who want to gain immortality. All this from someone who claims to be a devoted Episcopalian.
Here is the problem I alluded to about projection. He claims the disciples are all about painting a picture of Christ as being like Alexander or Caesar Augustus, by mixing Jewish prophecy and pagan stories. However, Mr. Meacham provides no editorial integrity to his article by presenting different views. In fact, the only views he uses demeans Nativity-believing Christians as simply child-like sponges. By using the quote from, I believe, someone on James Dobson's staff that Christianity is a child-like faith and we don't question it, he asserts that Christians are closed-minded and stupid. Then, he goes on to cite the work of the Jesus Seminar, which has been revealed to be people with a liberal agenda of "humanizing Jesus." Yet he claims that it was the Apostles, CONTEMPORARIES OF JESUS, who are the ones manipulating "facts" to create an agenda. However, this devoted "journalist" and "Christian" does not ask for the opinions of theologians who have studied the Nativity and believe it to be accurate in its telling. No, he does not consult any "conservative" theologians other than getting quotes about child-like faith and no questioning. Rather than invoking a lawyer who wrote a widely respected treatise called "The Case for Christ", he instead invokes a work of fiction (The DaVinci Code) to make the bold claim that the church knows Jesus is a bastard and was not born of a virgin because some novelist wrote a book about it!!!! If that is the case, then I guess we are all living in the Matrix, or that life is but a dream. Who is "shaping" a story now?
It gets better. Using some historical writing, he takes cracks at evangelicals and faithful Christians by talking about how the Romans viewed the early Christians, who many aspire to have similar faiths to: a group of marginal people on the fringes of empire preaching an outlandish message. Gee, doesn't that sound just like the views of Al Franken or Bill Maher when talking about Red Staters? This is blatant attempts to defame Christians. It is not that hard to see the political undertones.
More liberal projection: using verbosity worthy of Clinton himself, Meacham tries to offer solace to us dumb Christians by saying that despite the fact that "respected scholars (oddly, only those that supported his view)" and enlightened individuals such as he say that the whole thing is bunk, we can still say the Bible is "true without being accurate." Huh? I guess it makes sense when you come from the side whose fearful leader said, "it depends on what your definition of the word 'is', is." What utter doubletalk and nonsense.
What we have seen so far is merely the hidden agenda within this article. It is: You simple red state Christians, don't you know all that stuff W talks about is bunk? Don't you know that Jesus was a bastardchild born of an illicit relationship? They are seeking to debase and destroy our fundamental beliefs so they can set up MAN as the almighty, rather than a God who can perform miracles. It is typical of the so-called journalism of today, inflicting their values on us while talking about the need for understanding and respect for divergent beliefs.
Just as in Rathergate, aside from projecting their values onto the populace, Meacham plays with the facts. He alludes to the charge that Matthew and Luke stole from Virgil, the Roman writer, in regards to imagery used in their Scriptures. OK, Mr. Meacham....let me set you straight. As you assert, Virgil wrote his excerpt you used in the article in 40 BC, but Matthew and Luke are quoting the prophet Isiah, who wrote hundreds of years before Virgil. Therefore, is Virgil stealing from Isiah? And why would a Jewish tax collector and a Jewish doctor be reading Virgil, especially when they wrote almost exclusively in Greek and Hebrew? Just a thought.
Meacham, a supposed scholar, then goes on to utterly defy historical methodology and criticize the disciples for working backward from Jesus's time to His birth. Hello, he was a common man born of a virgin...there were no court scribes there to catalogue his birth and record it in the hall of records. People like Matthew and Luke would have to work backwards. If he criticizes this approach, then we must throw out about 90% of what we know about ancient Mesopotamia, Babylon, Rome, Egypt, and Greece. Because, you know, that Homer was just trying to preserve his native philosophy to build a bigger base, he wasn't writing what he thought was history. No sir, it is all about building a base. The implication by Meacham which undertows this whole article is that Christians (especially Conservative Christians) are merely manipulators, that even their faith was created by master manipulators. Unbelievable.
What is interesting, and a final sidebar to the comparisons to Rathergate, is the refusal of contemporary testimony. In Rathergate, despite repeated testimony and documentation that showed George W. Bush's service record, CBS believed only the one source from someone who asked to be connected to the Kerry campaign and who was disgruntled with GWB. Note Meacham's choices for his sources: he does not investigate the numerous theologians who believe in the miracles in the Bible. Nor does he take Christ's contemporaries at their word. Rather, he chooses to invoke modern scholars (who by the way, are working backwards, which according to Meacham is a no-no) who have no personal knowledge and who themselves have been revealed to be a humanist cabal. If we pursue Meacham's logic of refusing personal accounts as historical, then we must doubt the impact and known quotations of Socrates. Yep, Socrates didn't write anything down. He couldn't write. It was Plato. Yet, we trust a playwright/philosopher and former student of Socrates with telling the truth more than we trust those who walked with Christ. Interesting, isn't it?
So, what does it all mean. It means the mainstream media can no longer be trusted to simply report both sides and let people decide. Since their chosen one lost the Presidency, and they feel their tenuous hold on information slipping, they have chosen to go on the attack. Much the same way that they attempted to attack everything Bush did or stands for, they are attacking his (and our) core principles and articles of faith. They are not attempting to, as Meacham claims, "to recover the Jesus of history", they are attempting to rewrite it. They are not seeking truth, they are spinning tales which suit their purposes. Meacham, and the mainstream press, are guilty of the crimes that Jon Meacham accuses the Apostles and the writers of Scripture. Of course, Mr. Meacham and his fellow liberals would consider it bunk, but the Bible tells us this demystification of Christ will occur. Strange how by attempting to disprove, they merely assert its significance and its value as not only a literary work, but the inspired Word of God through the ages. Don't believe the false prophets and rationalizers; believe on Him who died and rose again. The mainstream media has aligned itself with cultural humanism and a culture devoid of values. They no longer believe in debate and truthseeking, they believe in telling a good story. Can they be trusted to tell us the truth when they themselves believe the Bible is nothing but propaganda? Makes you think, doesn't it?
12/15 Update
Welcome Hugh Hewitt fans! Please have a look around...Another 12/15 Update
Welcome readers from Mahatma's site! Hugh readers might want to check out Mahatma's bit on NativityGate here.I'd also like to point out that the author of this piece is actually Mark. Mark was signed in to my account instead of his own last night...
