By Peter Heck
It’s worth a read, especially as a primer to the much-deserved burning coals of humiliation I’m about to dump on our irresponsible and untrustworthy mainstream media culture.
The degree to which American media is uninformed about the Bible is breathtaking. Consider just a handful of recent examples of Biblical illiteracy among our so-called intelligentsia. These aren’t average citizens suddenly thrust before a microphone. These are “experts” and journalists with advanced degrees from leading universities. These are Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters and elites. These are people assisted by the highest priced editors media money can buy. And yet:
- A year ago the New York Times ran a piece by Jeremy Peters that suggested the Bible’s book of Romans “calls for the execution of gays.”
- Jennifer Shutt of Roll Call repeated this absurd claim in her own story.
- During the 2016 primaries, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker embarrassed herself, not understanding that Ted Cruz’s appeal to the “body of Christ” refers to the church and not the physical body of Jesus.
- Back at the Times, columnist David Brooks confused Jesus with Paul and wrongly placed Saul, David and Esther in the Jewish Torah.
With this embarrassing history, it should come as absolutely no surprise that a recent discovery of 3,700-year-old human remains of the ancient Canaanites led to another demonstration that our modern media’s hatred of the Bible is equaled only by their ignorance of it. Here were the headlines from around the press:
- “Study disproves the Bible’s suggestion that the ancient Canaanites were wiped out” (The Telegraph)
- “Bible says Canaanites were wiped out by Israelites but scientists just found their descendants living in Lebanon” (The Independent)
- “Bronze Age DNA disproves the Bible’s claim that the Canaanites were wiped out: Study says their genes live on in modern-day Lebanese people” (Daily Mail)
- “Scientists Find Evidence That Ancient Canaanites Survive Today: Was The Bible Wrong?” (Tech Times)
- “New DNA study casts doubt on Bible claim” (Mother Nature Network)
- “The Bible was WRONG: Civilisation God ordered to be KILLED still live and kicking” (Express)
- “Genetic evidence suggests the Canaanites weren’t destroyed after all” (Ars Technica)
- “Canaanites Weren’t Annihilated by Ancient Israelites After All” (Newser)
- “Study disproves the Bible’s claim that the ancient Canaanites were wiped out” (Click Lancashire)
- “Canaanites survived Biblical ‘slaughter’, ancient DNA shows”(ABC Online)
- “DNA vs the Bible: Israelites did not wipe out the Canaanites” (Cosmos)
- “The Bible got it wrong: Ancient Canaanites survived and their DNA lives in modern-day Lebanese” (Pulse Headlines)
It almost defies reason to think that not a single soul at any of those outlets know anything about the Biblical account of the Israelite invasion of Canaan. And that they’d write a story like this without even bothering to open up a Bible to double check what they obviously don’t know is beyond irresponsible reporting. It’s intellectual and journalistic malpractice.
For any of these offenders who might be reading this, here’s an important tidbit: the Bible specificallyand repeatedly states that Israel did not wipe out all the Canaanites as they were commanded to do. The folks at Discovery Institute offered a quick summary:
The first chapter in Judges lists all the places in Israel where the Canaanites persisted, “to this day,” “for they did not drive them out,” “he dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land,” etc. God is not happy with this, for “they shall be as snares to you, and their gods shall be a trap to you” (2:3). From the Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 1 (“Canaan”), “The persistence of Canaanites within Israelite territory was a theological problem variously addressed by biblical writers.”
In other words, the truth is exactly the opposite of what each and every one of those media sources trumpeted with great fanfare. You want #FakeNews? Just read any mainstream media story relating to the Bible. Even now, it appears that only Science magazine has issued an ‘update’ to their original misreporting:
This story and its headline have been updated to reflect that in the Bible, God ordered the destruction of the Canaanites, but that some cities and people may have survived.
May have survived? Good grief, these pseudo-academics can’t even be honest in their corrective updates. When the Scriptures explicitly declare that the Canaanites persist “to this day,” it isn’t the Bible saying the Canaanites “may have survived.” It’s the Bible saying they did survive.
Meaning the headlines should have screamed, “Science Validates Biblical History of Canaanite Survival.” Give me a call when you see that story written – I’ll be waiting by the phone.
