What if we turned the concept of “fake news” on politics to examining fake claims about religion? What would we discover? 

We’d find the DNA of ancient Christianity (i.e., Jesus’ teaching and peace movement) has suffered grave mutations that the Western Reformation never completely corrected, and in some cases, made worse. How can we know this? Through careful historical, biblical, and linguistic study. And how can the Jesus of history be authentic and much of this religion called Christianity be a scam? By an historical sleight of hand.

In this episode (Part 2), we discuss the remaining 7-12 major fake claims or scams that have been fostered by Western Christianity and ignorant or unsuspecting adherents about popular views of the meaning of the cross, the end times, women in the church, morality for the LGBT community, spiritual exchange, and justifying violence and war. (For fake claims #1-6, see Part 1). 

Authors cited or quoted include, James Bernstein, Mark Heim, Marcus Borg, N.T. Wright, Josephus (first century), Ann Nyland, Jacque Ellul, Michael Hardin, Rene Girard, and Robin Meyers. 

Interview Announcement: Michael announces the next episode will be an interview of Barbara Symons! Barbara is the author of “Escaping Christianity – Finding Christ” and has a lot of overlap with Michael on many experiences coming out of fundamentalism/evangelicalism.