Busting religious myths

The hype about the upcoming flight of fancy on the Discovery Channel called “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” is gullible and naive, as in ‘wow, let’s get on board this once-in-a-lifetime chance to bust the foundation of the Christian faith.’ That would describe NBC’s Today show.

At the top of the show NBC Today host Matt Lauer greeted viewers with the following tease about James Cameron’s new documentary: “A shocking new claim that an ancient burial place may have housed the bones of Christ and a son. This morning a Today exclusive that could rock Christianity to its core.”

Today co-host Meredith Vieira conducted the interview and promoted the discovery this way: “There are so few ‘wow’ stories out there, this is one of them.” While Today did air some contradictory statements for the most part the entire segment ran as a full blown infomercial for Cameron’s documentary.

Let’s look at what that “documentary” is, again. WaPo headlines it as “a stunt”.

Leading archaeologists in Israel and the United States yesterday denounced the purported discovery of the tomb of Jesus as a publicity stunt.

Scorn for the Discovery Channel’s claim to have found the burial place of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and — most explosively — their possible son came not just from Christian scholars but also from Jewish and secular experts who said their judgments were unaffected by any desire to uphold Christian orthodoxy.

“I’m not a Christian. I’m not a believer. I don’t have a dog in this fight,” said William G. Dever, who has been excavating ancient sites in Israel for 50 years and is widely considered the dean of biblical archaeology among U.S. scholars. “I just think it’s a shame the way this story is being hyped and manipulated.”

Profit-seekers don’t seem to be familiar with shame, though they probably availed themselves of the sales figures on “The DaVinci Code”, the ubiquitous book.

“It’s a publicity stunt, and it will make these guys very rich, and it will upset millions of innocent people because they don’t know enough to separate fact from fiction.”

Similar assessments came yesterday from two Israeli scholars, Amos Kloner, who originally excavated the tomb, and Joe Zias, former curator of archaeology at the Israeli Antiquities Authority. Kloner told the Jerusalem Post that the documentary is “nonsense.” Zias described it in an e-mail to The Washington Post as a “hyped up film which is intellectually and scientifically dishonest.”

Speaking of intellectually and scientically dishonest works…this one comes out like “The DaVinci Code” and “The Gospel of Judas” – with a publicity and marketing campaign.

Jodi Magness, an archaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, expressed irritation that the claims were made at a news conference rather than in a peer-reviewed scientific article. By going directly to the media, she said, the filmmakers “have set it up as if it’s a legitimate academic debate, when the vast majority of scholars who specialize in archaeology of this period have flatly rejected this,” she said.

This is the strongest language possible coming from objective experts with no stake in this stunt except the potential loss of esteem for their professions that this film project provokes. By the time “The DaVinci Code” movie got out, the world was treated to the truth about it by a rather vast assortment of experts on theology, history and art. “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” is just one more myth in a string of neo-gnostic or pop theology entertainment concoctions seeking to make a profit off of exposing Jesus. It has a long history…

The best way to assure it will be deservedly de-bunked is to spread awareness of its fallacies and its aim so that “millions of innocent people” will be able to separate fact from fiction….unlike the highly paid hosts of the Today show.