The Lost Tomb of Jesus

[x-posted at Daily Kos]

Some thoughts on the much anticipated (for the last week anyway) documentary.

Am I the only one who thinks that someone attempting to debunk essential Christian mythology shouldn't be pretending that he's not doing just that?

I mean buddy, I've lived the past 6 years under George Bush, I know disingenuous when I see it.

Using the hoary, "will the patinas match up?, answers after the commercial break" formula seems just a tad hackneyed.

Big problem, those of us who might be convinced that Christian mythology is a myth don't really need convinced, and those who might need to be convinced won't be.

Still, that said, raising a question for further scientific study isn't a bad thing generally.

More interesting was the after show analysis with Ted Koppel.

What's Ted's problem with re-enactments? Has he never seen a Discovery Channel show before? Has he never "watched" Homo Habilus building a campfire to roast marrow bones?

Regarding huffy agnostic archeologists who claim they have no dog in this fight: well, except that the archeological community has been sitting on this story for 26 years without comment and is then one-upped by a hack documentarian. No dog? Hardly.

Regarding theologians insisting that the problem with the film is that it doesn't provide for ample critical review: as opposed to EVERY SERMON EVER DELIVERED?

Final thought: anything that is bound to piss off fundamentalist Christians can't be all bad.

The importance of being agnostic

James Cameron must be smiling ear to ear.

Ever since his recent press conference discussing his upcoming Discovery channel documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus where the filmakers claim to have possibly found the tombs of, among others, Jesus, his mother Mary, and (shades of The DaVinci Code), his wife Mary Magdalene, and son Judah, the story has been raging like a tidal wave across the blogosphere as well as the MSM.

My favorite quote so far is an epic of understatement from the Christian Science Monitor:

If the evidence proved convincing, it would represent a challenge to the New Testament and the foundations of Christianity.

Ya think?

And while this tempest in a tomb provides welcome relief from breathless stories about Anna's body and Britney's pate I must wonder whether the upcoming and ongoing firestorm (a Google search of Cameron + Jesus garnered over 2 million responses) should truly matter to people of faith.

My understanding of faith is that it requires one to act without the emollient of objective truth. (And, in fact, it's this requirement that keeps me happily agnostic.)

Therefore, regardless of the scientific arguments on either side of the accuracy of the documentary's claims, shouldn't all those arguments be irrelevent to true believers?

I strongly suspect that many will not see it so.

For those who feel this claim threatens their beliefs I have to ask, does that say more about the documentary, or does it say more about your faith?

Have a revolutionary Christmas!

So, what should a leftist agnostic write about on Christmas?

First stipulation: I love the holiday, all the usual stuff, family, Christmas carols, Turkey, lights, presents, all that stuff.

Mostly though, I believe we should consider, the "reason for the season", as we're Oh so piously reminded on bumperstickers and on billboards.

Jesus, Yehoshua, יְהוֹשֻׁעַ.

I'm neither inclined, nor particularly qualified to argue strict questions of faith. But even an old skeptic like myself can appreciate the significance of Jesus' words.

EJ Dionne takes up the question of the revolutionary nature of Jesus teachings in a review of Allen Dwight Callahan's book, The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible.

I strongly suggest you take two minutes and read the entire essay, but a sample:

Poor little Jesus boy

Made him to be born in a manger.

World treated him so mean

Treat me mean, too.-Negro spiritual.

The poor, the outcasts, the slaves: If Jesus spoke to anyone, it was to them, and they have responded to him through the centuries. The African-American religious tradition is a blessing to all because it requires us to remember that Jesus of Nazareth really did revolutionize the world.

Have a happy revolution!