Still Bad, But With Some Improvements

Charlotte Allen has an article in the Los Angeles Times today in which she makes a comment about something I've noticed as well:

"When ABC's Peter Jennings made the first of his 'Search for Jesus' specials in 2000, it was a Jesus Seminar-dominated affair. Wright was the token conservative Christian scholar. But when Jennings followed up with 'Jesus and Paul' in 2004, he added Johnson and Witherington, as well as such Christianity-sympathetic academics as Alan Segal and Rodney Stark. Similarly, ABC's '20/20' special on Jesus' resurrection in April included interviews with Witherington and several other evangelical scholars."

I would add that the 2000 "Search for Jesus" program questioned Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, whereas the 2004 "Jesus and Paul" program avoided the birthplace issue. And the "20/20" special included some non-Christian Jewish scholars who acknowledged the historicity of the empty tomb. ABC and the mainstream media in general haven't become Christian. But it seems that they have taken a less critical view of Christianity and have given more attention to conservative scholarship than they had in the past. We often hear about the corruption of the media, and the media is still largely anti-Christian, but we should also acknowledge progress when it occurs.