I saw the show (recorded it), and thought it was good… but it could have been much better. The narrator made obvious errors.
Let’s be real about one thing. Catholicism represents the largest branch of Christianity, thus they are more believers of the Catholic interpretation of Christianity throughout the world than there is all the other Christianities combined. The fact that the CNN producers of this show went
out of their way to limit a Catholic point of view is quite telling. Of all the various scholars interviewed throughout the show, there was only one Catholic (a much older Irish priest) who seemed to find difficulty in spitting out any words, much less deep insight. Nonetheless, the producers also managed to show him most rarely of the entire panel. This is quite comical. Not that I disapprove of anyone, but in the show I think I counted 3 Jews, 3-4 liberal professors, an offshoot Anglican pastor, and a few other American scholars (by the way, from well-known liberal schools).
If I did a show on Islam, you better believe that I will present the demographics truthfully. I will not have a 10-man panel that includes 3 Shia’s, 1 Sufi, 1 Wahhabi, 2 Al-Qaeda militants, 4 liberal or secularist western Muslims, and 1 Sunni. No. With the actual statistics of the Muslim populations throughout the world, it’d be more like 9 Sunni’s, 1 Shia, 2-3 radicals of either denom, and maybe a Sufi “for variety” that producers crave so much. And I’d make sure I’d include plenty of clergymen.
Why do I point this out? Because it sounds so ridiculous for example when the narrator of this show several times referrered to “James, the brother of Jesus” (and it was very clear he meant a blood brother) when
most Christians throughout the world (Catholics, Orthodox, many Lutherans and Anglicans) do not believe that Jesus had a brother who’s birth mother was also the Virgin Mary. Another example was when the narrator mistakenly said that the Council of Nicea would determine whether Jesus would be a god or considered “just a wise man”.
<— That was me. It was partially clarified later by a scholar who briefly explained that most Chrisitans already believed Jesus to be God so the Council of Nicea would set the record straight on whether Jesus was of the same substance with the Father or a sub-deity similar in substance to God the Father, due to an heterodox belief (Arianism) that was fast emerging. The point about the show is that when it makes such statements, it is actually by default choosing
minority beliefs of certain issues and passing them off as the large universal beliefs. The
To its credit this show had an aura of catholic (lowercase “c”) traditionalism in its presentation. The artwork was extraordinary (ie: icons, frescos, the martyrs in the Colosseum), how the show vivified and animated that mystical music and art was nice, and how the show was carried by catholic orthodox prayers, liturgies, signs, and clerical rituals. Surprisingly, the show didn’t take the
minority belief of some Christians today that believe the early Christians were a bunch of prosperity-preaching King James Bible-thumping born-again evangelical dancing Christians.
But then again, why should I expect a news outlet (with their no.1 goal of higher ratings; not news accuracy) to teach me something about religion?
