Grant,

Thank you for sharing this article with us, as I haven't had time to go get
it on the net.

I was not impressed at all with the Peter Jennings documentary at all. I
didn't even watch the entire show.

Last night I went to see The Passion Of The Christ movie. It was well done,
and very good.

I may go see it a second time with my friend Marilynn who also went last
night with us.

My 3 loving girl friends, Marilynn, Linda, and Betty, my
Sister-in-law,  were excellent in describing everything to me, and reading
the sub titles. We went for coffee at the UCC Church after the movie and
talked about it.

I had gone prepared as I had red about the Crucifiction from all counts
that I could find, in my Loving Road Runner NIV talking Bible. BTW the
batteries are still working. lol. Praise God, no dirt in it from the tornado!

I'm praying for you all. I'm also Praising God for everything.

Lovingly,
Pat Ferguson



At 10:51 PM 4/6/04, you wrote:
>For those of you who couldn't find it and want to read the article from
>Focus on the Family, here it is.
>
>
>    April 5, 2004
>    'Jesus and Paul': A Review
>
>    by Tom Neven
>
>    Peter Jennings' latest religious special is filled with the
>    anti-Christian touches that have become his trademark.
>
>    This three-hour TV special is pretty much what we should expect from
>    Peter Jennings. Some of the usual suspects John Dominic Crossan, John
>    Spong, Elaine Pagels, Paula Fredriksen (she was one of the chief
>    critics of Mel Gibson) and Robert Funk (founder of the Jesus Seminar)
>    get prominent roles. There's only one obviously conservative
>    commentator, Ben Witherington of Asbury Theological Seminary, although
>    a few others seem to hold to an orthodox view of Scripture in places,
>    at least.
>
>    The underlying worldview of the special is unbelief. Nowhere is Jesus'
>    divinity mentioned, and nowhere do they discuss the inspiration of
>    Scripture. In fact, Jennings repeatedly refers to "the Jesus
>    movement," as if it were just another political party or faction.
>    Commentators also pit Paul against Jesus, as if the apostle taught
>    things that contradicted Jesus; and some refer to Paul as "the founder
>    of Christianity."
>
>    One device used throughout is "some scholars think . . ." or "scholars
>    debate . . ." In such cases, the conservative, orthodox position, if
>    represented at all, is usually as a throwaway.
>
>    Among other sticking points:
>
>    The special uses Joan Osborne's song "What If God Was One of Us?,"
>    which asks what would happen if God was "a slob like one of us"
>    "riding on a bus, trying to find His way home."
>
>    In describing the world that Jesus was born into, one commentator
>    says, "Jesus would have heard about a Messiah." Jennings follows by
>    asking a hypothetical question in Jesus' words: "Hey, maybe I'm the
>    Messiah." Jennings also says, "Scholars debate whether Jesus knew he
>    was the Messiah."
>
>    There's a strong element of the social gospel throughout.
>
>    One scholar asserts that the High Priest had Jesus arrested solely to
>    avoid Pilate's wrath. He was not arrested for blasphemy, according to
>    Jennings. Talking about Jesus in Gethsemane, Jennings says, "Jesus
>    would have understood that he was in danger," and another says of
>    Jesus, "It would have occurred to him, 'I might die tonight!' "
>
>    Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane is cut short, making it seem that all he
>    prayed was, "Take this cup from me," leaving out "but not my will, but
>    your will." Crossan says, "Jesus was worried about self-preservation."
>
>    Jennings takes the position that Judas was not a real person, saying,
>    "Many historians don't believe it."
>
>    One commentator says of Jesus' death, "He gave His life for the least
>    of these. If we turn Him into the eternal sacrifice for sin, that sets
>    aside so much of what was important to Him." (This follows a
>    discussion of Jesus' willingness to mix with the poor, sinners and tax
>    collectors.)
>
>    Jesus is spoken of as a political revolutionary and compared to Gandhi
>    and Martin Luther King Jr.
>
>    The apostles "claim" they saw the risen Jesus.
>
>    Crossan questions whether Jesus was buried at all, claiming that He
>    would have been left on the cross to rot or be thrown down to be eaten
>    by dogs. He says, "I feel terribly sympathetic to the followers of
>    Jesus, because I hear hope there, not history."
>
>    Jennings pretty much denies Paul's Damascus Road experience, asserting
>    that his conversion was a process, not a blinding moment.
>
>    The entire second half of the program is fixated on Paul's belief that
>    the world was about to end. While that is generally true, it is used
>    as a prism to view all of his other teachings. Nowhere does salvation
>    by grace or the law's having been fulfilled by Jesus come up. In fact,
>    Paul's assertion that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised is
>    treated strictly as a pragmatic move, something to make adult males
>    more likely to join "the Jesus movement." Commentators also say that
>    he constructed a new theology because it "works."
>
>    Paul is accused of embellishing and distorting Jesus' "message." One
>    pastor says, "Paul saw himself as Jesus on earth."
>
>    The program spends an unwarranted amount of time on the spurious
>    Gospel of Thomas, nowhere mentioning that it is filled with the
>    Gnostic heresy. (Why are liberals so preoccupied with the Gospel of
>    Thomas, by the way? It treats women much worse than Paul is alleged to
>    do in his epistles.)
>
>    One commentator says, "People have taken Paul's letters as if he meant
>    them to be some kind of blueprint. We do not know if Paul intended
>    Christians to live by these rules 2,000 years later."
>
>    Accordingly, there's a strongly implied message that the biblical
>    teaching on homosexuality should now be abandoned. Jennings contrasts
>    Fred Phelps (who spreads the message that "God hates fags") with
>    Mother Teresa.
>
>    Copyright =A9 2003 Focus on the Family.
>    All rights reserved. International copyright secured.
>
>References
>
>    1. LYNXIMGMAP:http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0031543.cfm#citlink2