Historical Reinvention Kevin Moss The thought of journalists

hacking into peoples’ phones is

bad enough. Now the Leveson

enquiry is investigating the way

journalists have gained

information from the police –

and paid them for it! The

banking crisis was one type of

corruption, but is this any less

serious? Certainly it

demonstrates how rare a

commodity integrity has

become within a secularised

media. But I suggest something

more is involved which is even

more ominous. The media is

also guilty of misrepresenting

history. It tinkers not only with

our Christian past but also with

what is happening now, an

illustration of which is the

reporting of the Queen’s

Christmas speech. Though the

media hacking and information-

slush-funds scandals are bad,

the bias against Christianity has

even more serious implications.

Secularist journalists, therefore,

need to be held to account when

they indulge in it.

Recent events in Tripoli, Egypt,

Libya or Syria are a case in

point. It is not uncommon to

hear a journalist speaking

fervently about being a witness

to the making of history. On one

level this is fine. It would be

unfeeling not to empathise with

a people being liberated from

oppression. How can one not

rejoice? Later, however, when

one accidentally discovers that

this ‘liberation’ has gone hand in

hand with a rapid escalation (by

the ‘liberated’ note) in the

persecution of Jewish and

Christian believers – a part of

the story almost completely

unreported by western

journalists - one has a sense that

history is not merely being

written, but re-written. The

instantaneous nature of internet

reportage gives viewers (and

readers) an illusion of real

history. In fact the ‘real-reality’

is being continuously and subtly

supplanted by something that

looks strangely like it, but isn’t.

Recently, on a web-forum, I

encountered a similar sort of

thing. It was a citation

attributed to Albert Einstein

which suggested that he

believed ‘anti-semitism’ is a

phenomenon manufactured by

Jewish people themselves! The

quotation, supposedly from the

November 1938 edition of

Colliers Magazine said, “anti-

Semitism is nothing but the

antagonistic attitude produced

in the non-Jew by the Jewish

group. The Jewish group has

thrived on oppression and on

the antagonism it has forever

met in the world - (so) the root

In the Round | CAMBRIDGE | SPRING 2012

Anyone can memorise the standard theological answers to sceptics’ questions. Similarly, any Christian can expound his own best guesses on why God allows suffering or commands the things he does. But it seems that to give sound and genuine answers to tough objections to Christianity, one should do more than

memorisation or speculation. One must develop a Christian mind. I have been pleased to find out just how formative a programme like the one at Christian Heritage can be in developing a Christian mind. Over the past six months, we apprentices have explored many questions in the realms

of apologetics and Christian thought: Why does God allow suffering? Can we trust the Bible? What is a Christian’s proper attitude toward culture? However, we have not approached these from a cold, sterile, and merely academic perspective. Rather, under the leadership of our tutors, we have looked into these questions as an intellectual and spiritual community, sharing

CHRISTIAN HERITAGE

An apprentice’s eye view

cause is their use of enemies

they create in order to keep

solidarity.” It may come as a

surprise to learn that Einstein

did not say this. In reality two

quite separate statements he

made have been conjoined.

Viewed separately and in their

original context neither conveys

this sense at all. Biased

reporting and an antipathy

towards Israel have produced a

synthesized version which now

forms part of a popular

mythology. It is trotted out by

journalists and writers and

rarely checked to find out what

Einstein actually said!

Atheists on another webforum

have done the same with a

passage from Josephus’ ‘Jewish

Antiquities’ (written around AD

93). The contentious passage in

Josephus is the Testimonium

Flavianum, which provides one

of only a handful of ancient non-

Christian references to the

historical Jesus. Opponents of

Christianity have long

recognized that such a passage

is inconvenient to their idea that

Jesus was just a myth invented

by the early church. So to find

the passage being challenged on

a contemporary webforum was

no surprise. What was

interesting, however, was the

way Josephus’ Testimonium

was linked to a 3rd century

Bishop called Eusebius (AD 263

– 339) via citations from the

notorious 18th century sceptic

Gibbon (1734-1794). According

to Gibbon the Josephus

reference is unreliable. To

support this he includes in his

Decline and Fall a quotation

from Eusebius in which the

early bishop seems to admit to

suppressing information against

the Christian faith and reporting

only what is useful to his cause.

However, digging a little deeper

one discovers that, irrespective

of his credentials as a historian,

the confession attributed to him

by Gibbon doesn’t appear in

that format in his own (that is

in Eusebius’) writings. Indeed,

as with Einstein’s quote above,

it appears to be another

conflation of disparate

references. When these

references are read in their

original context they give a quite

different meaning to the one

Gibbon intends.

All this may seem nit-pickingly

abstruse. But the examples I’ve

used are symptomatic of the

way the new atheism

misrepresents history and we

need to be alerted to this fact.

What is not abstruse is how the

Queen’s Christmas Day speech

fared in the media. It was a

remarkable speech not only for

the clarity of Her Majesty’s

emphasis, but also for the

proportion devoted to the

Gospel and the focus given to

the uniqueness and role of

Christ. I calculated hurriedly at

the time that about 46% of the

total speech was devoted to the

centrality of Christianity at

Christmas. Significantly the

media reportage sidestepped

this completely. As far as the

BBC was concerned the speech

was all about the family unit,

shared beliefs and mutual

values. The Telegraph said that

she spoke about ‘family, friends

and community spirit’. In fact

Her Majesty made explicit

reference to our fundamental

need for rescue by a loving

Saviour.

By contrast the secular media

reported her saying that the

answer to societal woes lay in

community! The reporting

didn’t just omit significant and

relevant data, it in effect re-

wrote the Queen’s Speech for

her. Whether this is the height

of arrogance or merely

patronizing the end result is the

our research and sharing our lives. This synthesis of the theoretical and the practical, the humanities and the human, the academic and the every-

day, is the defining characteristic of the Christian Heritage Apprenticeship. As a consequence of this approach, we have been equipped to

connect what we have learned in apologetics to regular conversations with students in the Cambridge community. For the apprentices, this is only the first fruits of an always-forming Christian mind. This being said, there are certain difficulties that have arisen out of the attempt to establish such a community. As this is the first year of the

same – the creation of another

layer of pseudo-history, one

designed to write the Christian

worldview out of our narrative.

That the secular historian

Gibbon should be found cherry-

picking from Eusebius’ writings

1449 years after that ancient

writer’s day is one thing, but

having modern history

effectively re-written under our

noses is another. One is

reminded of the Apostle Paul’s

pertinent phrase: “We demolish

arguments and every pretension

that sets itself up against the

knowledge of God, and we take

captive every thought to make it

obedient to Christ” (2

Corinthians 10:5 italics mine). If

the BBC’s misreporting of the

Queen’s Speech is considered of

little significance we are being

naïve. According to the apostle

Paul, it reflects a mindset which

is absolutely set against Christ

and his kingdom.

Kevin Moss is a member of our

board who is a businessman in

Cardiff. Validpath.co.uk

CAMBRIDGE SUMMER

SCHOOLS 2012

COUNSELLING | THEOLOGY | APOLOGETICS

Westminster College | Cambridge CAMBRIDGE SUMMER SCHOOL OF COUNSELLING 2012

A Biblical Approach to Counselling WITH PROFESSOR RICHARD WINTER

Monday 2nd - Friday 6th July 2012

By studying the relationship between theology, psychology and counselling, 'A Biblical Approach to Counselling' will build a framework for Christian counselling.

CAMBRIDGE SUMMER SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY 2012

The Doctrine of Scripture

WITH REV DR JOHN C. COLLINS

Sunday 8th - Friday 13th July 2012

CSST seeks to rekindle an excitement about 'Big Picture' theology - the 'height, depth and breadth,' of the Christian view of reality laid out through the pages of scripture.

CAMBRIDGE SUMMER SCHOOL OF APOLOGETICS 2012

Reasons for Faith

WITH PROFESSOR STEPHEN C. MEYER

Monday 16th - Friday 20th July 2012

Reasons for Faith' will explore scientific, historical and philosophical reasons for belief in a personal God, the reliability of the Bible and New Testament’s claims about the identity of Jesus Christ

'The quality of teaching and content makes me want to come back to anything that Christian Heritage puts on' - 2010 attendee

PRICES: Theology: Residential for course: £580; Meals only: £385 | Apologetics/Counselling: Residential per course: £500;

Meals only: £330 | Generous discounts for full time students - see website.

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apprenticeship, we have not yet acquired a house in Cambridge which can accommodate the lectures, meals, and discussions which provide the space for a community of this type. This is a necessity in the future and will increase the effectiveness of the apprenticeship.

Jon Thompson

Life in the Round

THURSDAYS 5.30-7.15, THE ROUND CHURCH

Refreshments from 5.15, Talk and discussion 5.45 - 7.00

‘CAPITALISM - WHAT GOOD IS IT?' 2nd February Dr. Peter Heslam, Director of Transforming Business, Cambridge University

'ART IN THE ROUND' SERIES Starts 8th March Paul Shakeshaft, affiliated lecturer in History of Art at Cambridge University 8th March - The Garden of Gethsemane 15th March - The Examination of Christ 22nd March - The Crucifixion 29th March - The Resurrection

'W. E. GLADSTONE: CHRISTIAN POLITICIAN?’ 19th April

Professor Eugenio Biagini, History Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University and author of an acclaimed biography of Gladstone.

Heaven in a Nightclub - Friday 16th March

LECTURE AND CONCERT: ‘THE SPIRITUAL ROOTS OF JAZZ’ Pianist and speaker, Dr. William Edgar, Professor of Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary, with professional jazz singer Ruth Naomi Floyd and professional musician Randy Pendleton Emmanuel URC, Refreshments from 7.15, Concert 8.00

THIS SPRING Recordings available online

Media Library and Archives

Our website is stocked with recordings of most of the Life in the Round and Saturday School talks from the last 3 years, and most Summer Schools are available to buy online.

Plus new website launched: www.christianheritage.org.uk

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