Jesus, my former professor and Time magazine

Back in January I was buying two dvds for my father-in-law's birthday at FYE. As I was checking out, the cashier asked me to select a couple magazines that I could receive 2 free issues from and then cancel if I didn't like them. I chose Real Simple (love it!) and Time.

While I still haven't gotten my free Real Simple issues, the second issue of Time came today.

I've been hearing the buzz about Jesus' tomb and Him not raising from the dead or some other rediculous idea that Hollywood throws at us, but didn't tune in until tonight while eating burgers with Josh. I picked up the issue and started reading two articles outloud to him:
"Rewriting the Gospels" and "Hollywood vs. Jesus."

I have to admit that some of the wordyness and political jokes flew right over my head but this caught my attention:

"Jacobovici [the guy who apparently came up with all this nonsense to begin with] claims that 10 bone boxes from an ancient Jerusalem-area crypt bear such a suggestive combination of names that it must be the holy family's tomb. His statistician has set the odds at 600 to 1 in favor. He thinks an inscription, Mariamene E Mara, denotes Mary Magdalene, and another, Judah Son of Jesus, her son by the Saviour.

Ok, so that's disturbing and irritating enough. Then it hit close to home.....like 15 mins close to home:

"The Jesus Dynasty, by James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte [Old Testament Survey...The JESUS class, anyone???], who also aided Jacobivici, emmeshes a plausible story of early church strife in speculative material suggesting that Jesus had a human father and hoped for an earthly kingship."

I added the bold....and rightfully so. I thought back to the several classes I took of his and how much he intrigued me with his tales of translating the Dead Sea Scrolls, negotiating with David Koresh in Waco, digging up history in Israel that was later written about and put in a museum somewhere. Ugh.

I also thought back to hearing the founder of our church talk about the time he went to one of Dr. Tabor's public lectures and went head to head with him over suggesting that Jesus was not the Son of God. He talked about how challenging that was and how he was treated by Dr. Tabor, NPR news people and the crowd that came out to hear him.

I guess I'm posting about this because I'm really disappointed. I know that lately I sound like I'm permanently nailed to a soap box, but seriously, this is rediculous. These guys come out of nowhere, say something crazy that they claim will destroy Christianity as we know it, and the public flocks to hear what they have to say. Da Vinci Code? The Temptations of Jesus?

It's interesting to me that as much as Hollywood bashes Christianity, they also depend on us for big box office numbers. Who else would have seen "The Passion," "End of the Spear," and now "Amazing Grace" (Sure, there would have been a few, but come on)?

It will be interesting to watch Hollywood completely contradict itself yet again when Easter rolls around.