Why the Fox News Scandal Is Good News for Reza Aslan
Connor Simpson
5 hours ago
Religious scholar Reza Aslan recently appeared on the FoxNews.com show Spirited Debate
and the host insisted that his being a Muslim somehow affects the
quality of his new book about Jesus. The whole ordeal was embarrassing
for Fox News, but things are only going to get better from here for the
author.
RELATED: What, Exactly, Motivated Fox to Pull the Plug on Beck?
Aslan appeared on the online show on Friday to promote his new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, about how the environment Jesus grew up in shaped him. But host Lauren Green didn't want to talk about the book so much as she wanted to talk about how Aslan is a Muslim. "You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?" was Green's very first question. "Well, to be clear, I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim," Aslan politely replied. Green doesn't give up, though, the interview goes downhill from there:
RELATED: Jon Stewart's Rare, Unexpectedly Serious Interview with Fox News
RELATED: Roger Ailes Muslim 'Worshipper' Fixation
At one point Green goes so far as to accuse Aslan of hiding his religion, as if he was trying to be sneaky, or as if it matters. "Ma’am, the second page of my book says I’m a Muslim," he tells her. "Every single interview I have ever done on TV or in print says I’m a Muslim."
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The whole ten minute appearance is embarrassing for the news network, even if it was an online show, for a number of reasons. As Uproxx's Josh Kurp points out: "At no point does Fox News realize the irony of persecuting someone over their religion in a discussion about Jesus." That's probably the biggest one.
RELATED: Update: HBO Might Not Make a Roger Ailes Movie Produced by 'Morning Joe' Hosts
But after the interview started to get passed around quietly on Saturday, and then exploded late last night after Buzzfeed called it "The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox News Has Ever Done," the outrage train was off and running. The reaction fell somewhere between praise for Aslan and disbelief at Fox News' horrible behavior. "This Fox interview with Reza Aslan is absolutely demented (& he handled it with remarkable calm)" said The New Yorker's Emily Nussbaum. Wired's Steve Silberman simply called the interview "embarrassing," as did many others. "Please, please watch this if you haven't yet. It's amazing," urged Digg editorial director David Weiner. "How fitting to watch that [Aslan] clip during a commercial break from Idiocracy," he added later. Buzzfeed's Raymond Sultan called it "the greatest thing" he's ever seen. "The level of stupidity and ignorance here is bewildering," said writer Chris Addison. "My patience would have vanished within a few minutes if I was being asked these questions," said Deadspin's Samer Kalaf. "Reza Aslan is superhuman."
But there is one thing everyone can agree on:
The disgust and glee and outrage stemming from the interview should actually help Aslan. Controversy like this usually drives book sales through the roof. Remember what happened with J.K. Rowling's pseudonymous mystery novel? The same thing will likely happen with Aslan's book, too, and plenty of people have mentioned buying the book after watching the interview. But the nice thing about this controversy is Aslan's book was selling well without the help. While Rowling's book had sold less than 2,000 copies before the big reveal -- leading some to suspect it was a promotional work -- Aslan's Zealot debuted at the number two spot on The New York Times' Best Seller list behind Mark Leibovich's This Town this morning. Just wait until the post-scandal numbers come in.
end quote from:
http://news.yahoo.com/why-fox-news-scandal-good-news-reza-aslan-221802800.html
My best friend still alive has a Master's Degree in History of Religion from UCLA. So, watching this was pretty unbelievable from that perspective because we discussed things like this starting in 1969 when he was going for his Bachelor's degree. The problem with most Christians is that they have no idea who the Historical Jesus is and only believe in the generally perceived myths about Jesus. I was raised in a mystical Christian religion and became really surprised when I began in college to learn about historically who Jesus and Saint Germain were which is different than the popular mythologies that religions make about them. It is sort of the difference in some ways between the truth about people and rumors about people. So, often people's Christianity is based upon popularly accepted rumors. This way of faith might be useful to many people in keeping them alive, giving them hope, keeping them from committing suicide and that is likely very good for individuals and society at large. However, if someone is going to embark upon a historical search for Jesus or Saint Germain or anyone else they are going to find almost an infinite amount of paradoxes in the process and some people can live with paradoxes and others can't.
Also, Reza Azlan likely has been listening to extremist zealot points of view (ad infinitum) from students in class realizing that the historical Jesus is not the Jesus in the Bible. So, when devout Christians have to confront historical Jesus there are always bound to be fireworks. Since he has likely seen 20 years of this both as a student and as a professor this is why he said, "I have 4 degrees including a PHd in History of Religion. This is my profession."
RELATED: What, Exactly, Motivated Fox to Pull the Plug on Beck?
Aslan appeared on the online show on Friday to promote his new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, about how the environment Jesus grew up in shaped him. But host Lauren Green didn't want to talk about the book so much as she wanted to talk about how Aslan is a Muslim. "You’re a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?" was Green's very first question. "Well, to be clear, I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim," Aslan politely replied. Green doesn't give up, though, the interview goes downhill from there:
RELATED: Jon Stewart's Rare, Unexpectedly Serious Interview with Fox News
RELATED: Roger Ailes Muslim 'Worshipper' Fixation
At one point Green goes so far as to accuse Aslan of hiding his religion, as if he was trying to be sneaky, or as if it matters. "Ma’am, the second page of my book says I’m a Muslim," he tells her. "Every single interview I have ever done on TV or in print says I’m a Muslim."
RELATED: Rupert Murdoch Wants to Tackle Cable Sports
The whole ten minute appearance is embarrassing for the news network, even if it was an online show, for a number of reasons. As Uproxx's Josh Kurp points out: "At no point does Fox News realize the irony of persecuting someone over their religion in a discussion about Jesus." That's probably the biggest one.
RELATED: Update: HBO Might Not Make a Roger Ailes Movie Produced by 'Morning Joe' Hosts
But after the interview started to get passed around quietly on Saturday, and then exploded late last night after Buzzfeed called it "The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox News Has Ever Done," the outrage train was off and running. The reaction fell somewhere between praise for Aslan and disbelief at Fox News' horrible behavior. "This Fox interview with Reza Aslan is absolutely demented (& he handled it with remarkable calm)" said The New Yorker's Emily Nussbaum. Wired's Steve Silberman simply called the interview "embarrassing," as did many others. "Please, please watch this if you haven't yet. It's amazing," urged Digg editorial director David Weiner. "How fitting to watch that [Aslan] clip during a commercial break from Idiocracy," he added later. Buzzfeed's Raymond Sultan called it "the greatest thing" he's ever seen. "The level of stupidity and ignorance here is bewildering," said writer Chris Addison. "My patience would have vanished within a few minutes if I was being asked these questions," said Deadspin's Samer Kalaf. "Reza Aslan is superhuman."
But there is one thing everyone can agree on:
The disgust and glee and outrage stemming from the interview should actually help Aslan. Controversy like this usually drives book sales through the roof. Remember what happened with J.K. Rowling's pseudonymous mystery novel? The same thing will likely happen with Aslan's book, too, and plenty of people have mentioned buying the book after watching the interview. But the nice thing about this controversy is Aslan's book was selling well without the help. While Rowling's book had sold less than 2,000 copies before the big reveal -- leading some to suspect it was a promotional work -- Aslan's Zealot debuted at the number two spot on The New York Times' Best Seller list behind Mark Leibovich's This Town this morning. Just wait until the post-scandal numbers come in.
end quote from:
http://news.yahoo.com/why-fox-news-scandal-good-news-reza-aslan-221802800.html
My best friend still alive has a Master's Degree in History of Religion from UCLA. So, watching this was pretty unbelievable from that perspective because we discussed things like this starting in 1969 when he was going for his Bachelor's degree. The problem with most Christians is that they have no idea who the Historical Jesus is and only believe in the generally perceived myths about Jesus. I was raised in a mystical Christian religion and became really surprised when I began in college to learn about historically who Jesus and Saint Germain were which is different than the popular mythologies that religions make about them. It is sort of the difference in some ways between the truth about people and rumors about people. So, often people's Christianity is based upon popularly accepted rumors. This way of faith might be useful to many people in keeping them alive, giving them hope, keeping them from committing suicide and that is likely very good for individuals and society at large. However, if someone is going to embark upon a historical search for Jesus or Saint Germain or anyone else they are going to find almost an infinite amount of paradoxes in the process and some people can live with paradoxes and others can't.
Also, Reza Azlan likely has been listening to extremist zealot points of view (ad infinitum) from students in class realizing that the historical Jesus is not the Jesus in the Bible. So, when devout Christians have to confront historical Jesus there are always bound to be fireworks. Since he has likely seen 20 years of this both as a student and as a professor this is why he said, "I have 4 degrees including a PHd in History of Religion. This is my profession."
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