Jesus and CNN

So last night I caught the tail end of CNN’s program on Jesus and I expected that when all was said and done I’d be very disappointed.  Surprise of surprise, I wasn’t: they did a really good job.

I only caught the tail end where they were discussing his death and resurrection.  They appealed to a wide variety of scholars including Roman Catholic scholars as well as Bart Ehrman and NT Wright.  I think they accurate captured the reason for Jesus’ death and didn’t try to just blame the Romans or blame the Jewish authorities, and instead got it right that they two were in cahoots.  They also did a good job with the resurrection, and made the point that while science can’t explain the resurrection, none of the supposed explanations adequately explain the faith that developed in subsequent years.  They closed with this comment from NT Wright, “The best explanation for the rise of the Christian faith is that Jesus was in fact raised from the dead on the third day.”  

It was also nice to see that “objective” scholars (typically Crossan, Marcus Borg, etc.) didn’t get much attention as they often do because those “evangelical” scholars can’t be trusted because they have an agenda (as if Crossan and Borg don’t?).  

Anyway, my accolades this morning go out to CNN for a job well done.