If They Are Going to Attack Christ, Can't They at Least Come Up With Something Original?

Yup, here we go again. Another attack on who Jesus Christ is, this time how he was conceived. According to the Fox News Headline: 'Basic Instinct' Director Paul Verhoeven: Jesus Was Son of Mary and Roman Rapist.

According to the article: "In his upcoming biography of Jesus, "Basic Instinct" director Paul Verhoeven will make the shocking claim that Christ probably was the son of Mary and a Roman soldier who raped her during the Jewish uprising in Galilee." My 1st question is "shocking to who?" This story has regularly surfaced again & again. According to Kirk Bingaman, director of the pastoral counseling program at Fordham University's Graduate School of Religion: "The idea goes back to ancient sources from the 1st or 2nd century; I personally don’t put a lot of stock in it. How would we ever know? We don’t have any empirical proof. I subscribe to the Apostles' Creed that Jesus was conceived of the Virgin Mary."

I can't remember how many years ago I 1st ran across this claim. I'm sure he has plans to make a movie from his book. But, it has already been done in a movie. & Monty Python (Life of Brian) did it much better than Verhoeven probably will. & at least as accurately.

"In addition to suggesting that the Virgin Mary may have been a rape victim, the book will also say that Christ was not betrayed by Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 original apostles of Jesus, as the New Testament states." Well, who then?

But when you know a little more about Verhoeven this makes perfect sense. In the past he has attended session of The Jesus Seminar. That group has no faith in miracles or the supernatural. They have set as their goal the demythologizing of the Gospels. What they have really done is spread a pack of lies. They want to turn Jesus into a nice guy with some good ideas but not God & not a miracle worker. As Bill Donahue puts it: "The goal is to question the divinity of Christ — to say he was nothing but a happy carpenter who worked at Lowe's or Home Depot." & they want to turn God into a 98 pound weakling incapable of doing a single miracle. They are a sad excuse for Bible scholarship that deserves to be ignored rather than given the serious attention they have been given in recent years by the media.

Here we have the difference between an attack on Catholic beliefs & an attack on Muslim beliefs. remember The Satanic Verses? Salman Rushdie is still under a fatwā that calls for his death. Instead, us Christians will protest. The worst we will do is unleash Bill Donahue of The Catholic League to mock him. But no death threats.

According to Fox News, Donahue called the claims "laughable "

"Here we go again with idle speculation grounded in absolutely nothing," Donohue told FOXNews.com. "He has no empirical evidence to support his claim, which is why they say 'may have.'"

Donohue also mocked the fact that Verhoeven — best known for directing the famous Sharon Stone crotch scene in "Basic Instinct" — reportedly worked on the book for 20 years, only to come up with a "probably."

"He's been working 20 years trying to sell this argument and hasn't come up with anything," Donohue said. "This won't make a dent with Christians, nor with scholars somewhat wary of the biblical account.

"It's a European version of Hollywood. He should go back to Sharon Stone's legs."

For 2000 years there have been attacks on the basic teachings of Christianity. So, this is nothing new. Sadly, some people will buy this, just as they did the DaVinci Code, gnosticism, arianism etc. Our job is to keep on proclaiming the truth. Let us pray that the book fails & that Mr. Verhoeven, who claims to be Catholic, will be converted & come to know the truth is what is found in Scriptures.