Thursday, December 15, 2005

Fresh Air? You've Got To Be Kidding. NPR has an interview show called "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, originating in Philadelphia. Yesterday Gross interviewed Bart Erdman, who she said is chairman of the religious studies department at UNC-Chapel Hill. He just published a book called "Misquoting Jesus".

Erdman described himself as an "agnostic". On the one hand, he described the Bible as the greatest book of Western Civilization. On the other hand, he recited the tired old criticisms of its being full of contradictions and largely irrelevant, at least on more direct issues, such as homosexuality, just war and the like. And, of course, every writer of a New Testament book has a different idea of Jesus. This is "fresh"?

Of course, we want the Bible to be the greatest book of Western civilization, don't we Bart? It helps maintain you in the favored position as tenured professor at Chapel Hill. Then, just to be sure that you can maintain that position among the elites at such places, let's undermine its influence and relevance. I really don't know how one can hold that the Bible is "great" and then hold that it is full of lies and myths. But I guess that's what it means to be "post-modern", and certainly you want to be so "now".

This is not to mention the stewardship of those responsible for the faculty of UNC-CH, who take taxpayer money and spend it on these people so that the children of taxpayers are subjected to this kind of propaganda.

There is, of course, a special sort of perversity in publishing this book at Christmastime and presenting such an interview on NPR when most other radio stations are broadcasting Christmas carols. But we are used to that sort of thing; its nothing "fresh" at all, just contemptible.

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