17AR22-04

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AR 22:4 - Is Christianity 'just a mosaic of recycled myths?'

In this issue:

AMERICAN HISTORY - putting urban legends about the founders' alleged deism to the test

BELIEFNET - neopagans "guardedly optimistic" about its acquisition of Patheos religion blog

MYTH - responding to the popular idea that "Christianity is just a mosaic of recycled myths"

Apologia Report 22:4 (1,324)

January 25, 2017

AMERICAN HISTORY

The Founders and the Bible, by Carl J. Richard [1] -- Writing for Choice (Nov '16), Shelby M. Balik (Metropolitan State University of Denver) notes: "Having read public and private writings of 30 leaders in the founding generation, Richard (Univ. of Louisiana, Lafayette) weighs in on these debates, suggesting that scholars have underestimated the Bible’s role in shaping intellectual and political life in revolutionary America. He argues that the Bible definitively framed the founders’ worldviews. ... Richard demonstrates beyond a doubt that the founders peppered their political rhetoric with biblical language, but the significance of that language remains unclear." [3]

Publishers Weekly (Jun 6 '16) finds that Richard "delves into the intense religious thought of America's founding members through a collection of their journal entries, speeches, articles, and events, intended to squelch the notion that the nation was created on atheistic or deist principles. ... In some of the most striking sections, commonly held beliefs about the founders' core deism are put to the test, as when Benjamin Franklin writes: 'There can be no Reason to imagine he would make so glorious a Universe merely to abandon it.' Richard's extensively researched book will be a welcome addition to current scholarship about the religious beginnings of the United States, but general readers will be deterred by the meandering structure and uneven pacing." [4]

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BELIEFNET

"Beliefnet acquires Patheos" by Terence P. Ward, writing for the Wild Hunt neopagan news site <wildhunt.org> -- significant for Ward's occult-sympathetic perspective. He reports that in early September "came the announcement that religion site Beliefnet has acquired Patheos, the far more popular home of a wide variety of religious blogs, [and] a vibrant Pagan channel. While Beliefnet also once hosted Pagan bloggers, since being acquired by the Christian-focused BN Media company, those writers all eventually moved on. With the new purchase, it has been stated that plans thus far are to keep the two sites independent of each other." Ward finds "Pagan bloggers guardedly optimistic" about this commitment.

"BN Media seems to be a different sort of owner, if their two largest initiatives, Affinity4 and Cross Bridge, are any indication. In short, it seems they are a conservative 'family friendly' Christian group. All you have to do is pay attention to all the subtle buzz-words. ... It doesn't paint a very rosy picture of future interfaith interactions and diverse viewpoints on Beliefnet.

"Patheos Pagan channel editor Jason Mankey isn't expecting any purges at Patheos." Later, Ward notes: "Mankey has earned the respect of people in the Pagan blogosphere since he took over as channel editor, including that of Anne Newkirk Niven, who runs one of the largest independent Pagan blog sites <pagansquare.com>, who called him an 'excellent administrator.' ...

"Gus DiZerega <www.goo.gl/c6umRD> has been a presence at many major Pagan blogging sites, including Pagan Square and Patheos. He also wrote for Beliefnet, and he's more suspicious. 'The people who controlled Beliefnet acted unethically in my experience, and cannot be trusted,' he said.

"Others also see two sides to this coin. 'It seems that the merger is a pretty mixed bag,' said David Pollard, who edits the [Unitarian Universalist]-centric Nature's Path group blog at Patheos Pagan. 'While a lot has been made in the Pagan blogosphere about Beliefnet's incivility towards Paganism in recent years, when they started they were able to get some very high-profile Pagans like Margot Adler and Starhawk to write for them.

"'The problem was, that's where they stopped,' Pollard continued. 'They never really developed a second tier of writers, which is something that Patheos through its Pagan Channel editors has really excelled at.' ...

"One thing that any owner of Patheos is likely to want is a profitable venture, and the main way to achieve that with a content site is through advertising sales. The ads on the site now have been the subject of criticism by Pagans over the years, including from The Wild Hunt founding editor Jason Pitzl, who entered into a partnership in 2011-12.

"In announcing the relaunch of an independent Wild Hunt, he promised 'zero ads endorsing Mormonism or Liberty University.' Those result from buying into pools such as ones offered by Google, which serve up ads based on a variety of factors, including one's behavior generally on the internet and search terms used. ...

"For now, Patheos remains independent, but it's likely that the new owners will seek to find ways to use this property to improve Beliefnet and other sites. As of this writing, Patheos is ranked 1,922 by site-ranking service Alexa, while Beliefnet stands at 12,451. It's a question of when and how, rather than if or why the Patheos traffic will be captured. The Wild Hunt will cover developments as those changes unfold." Wild Hunt, Sep 14 '16, <www.goo.gl/8WExJk>

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MYTH

Daryl E. Witmer has compiled another great one-page apologetic response. This time he addresses the popular idea that "Christianity is just a mosaic of recycled myths" drawn from the "pagan folklore accounts of gods and figures such as Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, and Mithras." Witmer cites a variety of Christian scholars who address the issue, from J. Warner Wallace to Norman L. Geisler to Ronald Nash. Areopagus Proclamation, Jan/Feb '17 [2]

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - The Founders and the Bible, by Carl J. Richard (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, hardcover, 396 pages) <www.goo.gl/LhZLKn>

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