Washington Post Has Controversial Author, Resa Aslan, Write 'Five Myths About Jesus' Column
The Washington Post has recently published a column for their weekly Sunday section on "5 Myths About Jesus" by a controversial author and scholar.
Resa Aslan, author of the best-selling book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, wrote a column Sunday arguing that there were five commonly believed ideas about Jesus that were either untrue or likely untrue.
"Outside of the Gospels…there is almost no trace of this simple Galilean peasant who inspired the world's largest religion," wrote Aslan.
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"But there's enough biblical scholarship about the historical Jesus to raise questions about some of the myths that have formed around Him over the past 2,000 years."
The five points of contention Aslan wrote about were, in order, "Jesus was born in Bethlehem," "Jesus was an only child," "Jesus had 12 disciples," "Jesus had a trial before Pontius Pilate" and "Jesus was buried in a tomb."
Dan Gainor, vice president for the Business and Culture department of the Media Research Center, told The Christian Post that he was not shocked by The Washington Post opting to publish the piece.
"The major media are reflexively anti-Christian, so hyping an anti-Christian author fits within their world quite well," said Gainor.
"Aslan has gotten major coverage in the Post and the major media have loved him ever since his Fox News interview."
Gainor also told CP that The Washington Post published the column as "an attempt to gin up a controversy by a man with a questionable resume bashing Christianity."
"Try to imagine the Post giving that much space to a Christian author writing the '5 Myths About Islam.' That would never happen," said Gainor.
Every Sunday, The Washington Post features a "Five Myths About…" segment, usually about a contemporary issue, person or theme.
Past topics have included authors attempting to dispel "myths" regarding Millennials, cruise missiles, libertarians and Detroit.
A scholar of religious studies, Aslan had his book "Zealot" published in July. The book became a best seller, in large part, because of the attention it received following a controversial interview Aslan had with a Fox News anchor.
"Zealot" was not without its critics, as many scholars and pundits took exception with Aslan's claims and his methodology.
Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, had a book review published by The Washington Post wherein Prothero accused Aslan of "cherry-picking" his evidences from the Bible.
"Like every other scholar with the chutzpah to try to divide the historical Jesus accurately from the Christ of Christian faith, Aslan does a lot of cherry-picking," wrote Prothero.
"More to the point, why credit and emphasize violent passages in the Gospels while discrediting and deemphasizing peaceful ones? Why believe that Jesus really told his disciples, 'If you do not have a sword, go sell your cloak and buy one' (Luke 22:36)? Why the skepticism when it comes to 'love your enemies' (Matthew 5:44)?"
