Southern Baptist Leader Albert Mohler Denounces Newsweek Piece Calling Evangelicals 'God's Frauds'
A prominent Southern Baptist Convention leader has denounced a front page Newsweek piece calling evangelical and fundamentalist Christians "God's frauds."
Dr. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, posted an entry on his website Monday taking issue with Kurt Eichenwald's lengthy essay on the Bible.
Titled "The Bible: So Misunderstood It's a Sin," the Eichenwald piece set to be in print later this week argued that the Bible of today is not the original Bible and that groups like fundamentalists and evangelicals are "God's frauds."
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"They wave their Bibles at passersby, screaming their condemnations of homosexuals. They fall on their knees, worshipping at the base of granite monuments to the Ten Commandments while demanding prayer in school," wrote Eichenwald.
"They appeal to God to save America from their political opponents, mostly Democrats. They gather in football stadiums by the thousands to pray for the country's salvation."
Mohler denounced the piece, contrasting it with past articles from mainstream media outlets like Time Magazine and even Newsweek.
"When written by journalists like Newsweek's former editor Jon Meacham or TIME reporters such as David Van Biema, the articles were often balanced and genuinely insightful," wrote Mohler.
"But Newsweek's cover story is nothing of the sort. It is an irresponsible screed of post-Christian invective leveled against the Bible and, even more to the point, against evangelical Christianity. It is one of the most irresponsible articles ever to appear in a journalistic guise."
Mohler dubbed the work a "hit-piece" wherein Eichenwald's "only sources cited within the article are from severe critics of evangelical Christianity, and he does not even represent some of them accurately."
"Newsweek's cover story is exactly what happens when a writer fueled by open antipathy to evangelical Christianity tries to throw every argument he can think of against the Bible and its authority," continued Mohler.
"To put the matter plainly, no honest historian would recognize the portrait of Christian history presented in this essay as accurate and no credible journalist would recognize this screed as balanced."
Scheduled to be published in the first edition of Newsweek's print edition for 2015, the Eichenwald piece has already garnered much criticism from various websites, mostly conservative in their theology and/or politics.
On his Twitter handle, Eichenwald has had tweets sent back and forth with critics confronting him on social media. He has also posted comments on other sites denouncing his work offering critical feedback.
A former New York Times investigate reporter and best-selling author, Eichenwald has attacked in print conservative ideas and causes in the past.
Mohler is not the only conservative Christian leader rejecting Eichenwald's work. Bill Donohue, head of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said the author's "arrogance is stunning."
"Casting doubt just about everywhere, he tells us, for example, that the story of the adulterous woman whom Jesus counseled is an 'event that never happened,'" stated Donohue.
"Apparently, he doesn't see the irony: If the traditional Biblical account cannot be trusted, how can he be so cock-sure that his interpretation is accurate? His arrogance is stunning."
