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| Nina Burleigh wikimedia |
Internet newspaper The Huffington Post has a well-written and interesting article by Nina Burleigh called What good has to do with it?
Nina Burleigh's homepage tells that she is an adjunct professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and author of five books of which The Fatal Gift of Beauty was a New York Times bestseller. She has published in "Businessweek, The New Yorker, and Time, is a contributing editor at Elle and has appeared on Good Morning America, Nightline, The Today Show, 48 Hours, MSNBC, CNN and, on NPR and numerous radio programs". In her many writings Burleigh has covered "American politics, the Arab Spring, Israeli archaeological forgers, Arab feminism, Iraqi immigrants to Nebraska, the NYPD and human trafficking in New York City, Nazi looted art at the MOMA, a small-town Italian mayor murdered over slow food politics, Arctic travel, and Chinese immigrants to Italy and expat life in Italy".
In short, Nina has experienced very successful life in modern media world and is going strong on many fronts as her web pages inform us.
So what has the old Bible to give to such a modern, highly educated, and enlightened woman who knows quite well not only Israel and American Jews but also the Arab world - worlds in which ancient Scriptures still play a vivid role.
Not much.
According to her sharp analysis the impact of Biblical heritage on modern politics and culture is mostly negative. Bible itself is just an ancient collection of religious writings created by some seventh century BCE Hebrew priests in the desert who apparently invented most of the stories in it. And still many read it as blueprint of modern events taking place in the Near East, Armageddon and all.
Strong modern woman and weak Bible. Undoubtedly many people agree and hurray with her in the evaluation of the Bible and those who so fanatically still believe in it.
Study the Bible!
IMHO it is really unfortunate that Nina Burleigh has not bothered to learn to know the Scriptures better. Her obvious ignorance of historical-critical research of the Bible and lack of understanding of Religions of the Book is apparent in the background of her notes on modern fraud and deception in the Biblical world and USA politics and culture.
The frauds are truly disgusting and the use of the Bible in modern politics surprising - but the only effective weapon against false claims is the truth.
"Many of the Bible stories and characters in them -- Adam and Eve, Abraham, Noah, Moses, Solomon -- have no historical basis. The more archaeologists dig and the more historians search, the less certain they are of almost every aspect of the Bible, from Exodus to the conquest of the Promised Land to the existence of a grand ancient Israeli empire.
Nina Burleigh
It is the business of historians, archaeologists and academics to suspect everything and to be sceptical about everything. But this does not mean that they are correct in their claims and counterclaims - history of scholarly research is full of shipwrecks that once proudly filled the lecture rooms of Universities and Theological faculties. Bible has turned out to be quite persistent even its doom has been announced so many times during the scientific era of Western society.
But many among us -- from Christians in America to religious nationalists in Israel -- persist in reading the Bible, a document written in the 7th century BCE by a small group of priests in the desert, as a blueprint for God's plan for the Middle East, giving politicians like Netanyahu cover, and enriching charlatans who hawk proof of the Bible on TV and in print.
Nina Burleigh
Not only a blueprint for Netanyahu era right wing Israel and republican votes but for the entire planet Earth on the axis of Jerusalem. Bibi is not the Great King the ancient Scriptures are talking about and does not claim to be - the time of the real King will come.
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