It is nothing of this world

By Violet Hassler Commentary

Why can’t Hollywood just stick to entertainment?

While the movie “Titanic” is not one of my favorite movies, I do admit to a channel surfing hiatus when I see it’s on TNT to watch the antics of Rose and Jack on the doomed luxury liner.

But now Jack will forever be linked to Jesus and James, since “Titanic” director James Cameron has created a Discovery Channel documentary claiming to have unearthed the bones of Jesus Christ. The program airs Sunday.

Cameron, who doesn’t profess to be an archeologist or a biblical scholar, said at a news conference Monday, “There’s a definite sense that you have to pinch yourself.”

Well, I’m not an expert on the Bible either, but I have read enough to think Jesus probably would have taken his bones with him ... WHEN HE ASCENDED TO HEAVEN!

But then, Mr. Cameron, that’s the point of all this isn’t it?

This documentary isn’t some journey into the past to provide definitive evidence of biblical teachings. It’s yet another attempt to undermine the foundation of Christianity by casting doubt Jesus’ ascension ever happened.

Undermining Christianity has become a favorite pastime of Hollywood lately, and, quite frankly, as a Christian I’m kind of getting tired of it.

Christianity and the United States always seem to be popular targets. No other religion can be questioned without raising a furor of bigotry. No other country can do wrong because they are forever fighting in the shadow of the big, bad U.S.

But somehow it’s OK, even in vogue, to bring down Christianity.

Any truth behind this documentary isn’t based on new evidence. In fact, the very remains in question were unearthed in 1980 and questioned heavily by Christian scholars in 1996.

While it is true Christian scholars do have a stake in all this, here are a couple of facts:

• Apparently the tombs bear inscriptions of “Judah, son of Jesus” and “Mariamene,” which according to some translates to Mary Magdalene. (What? Is this a sequel to the fiction book/movie “The Da Vinci Code?”)

Religious scholars say even the names are suspect because ancient Semitic script is difficult to decipher.

Besides, apparently while Jesus was an uncommon man of all time, his name was not in his time.

“The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time,” Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, said in an Associated Press interview. Pfann is interviewed in the documentary.

• If archeologists and researchers really believed this was the tomb of Jesus Christ, wouldn’t they have said something 25 years ago?

“The fact that it’s been ignored tells you something,” William Dever, professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, told The Associated Press. “It would be amusing if it didn’t mislead so many people.”

But maybe that’s all part of the religious right cover-up, part of the brain-washing, so to speak, from which Hollywood professes it will save us all.

Which brings me back to the whole I’m sick of Hollywood trying to be my conscience. I know what I want. I know what I believe.

“When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.” Mark 16:19

That is where I will one day worship him forever.

Stop trying to preach to me Hollywood. Just entertain me.



Hassler is News & Eagle news editor.

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