On Fox News Channel’s “America Live” on Wednesday, Brent Bozell, head of the Media Research Center, reacted to an interview Lauren Green conducted with Reza Aslan, author of “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.”
In his book, Aslan question the core tenets of Christianity, particularly Jesus Christ and him being of divine nature. Green, in her interview, however, questioned Aslan’s expertise on Christianity, noting he was a Muslim.
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“I will be the first one to stand up and applaud Lauren Green for the question that she asked,” Bozell said. “It was the exact correct question that needed to be asked. Look, this man was a Christian who converted to Islam and she had every right to ask him — she’s asking him in fact, do you have a bias, are you being influenced by your faith to write what you are writing? He should have first and foremost said, ‘Yes, I am.’ To deny it shows the arrogance. And you saw his answer — just the aloof arrogance in how dare she asked that question. But the fact of the matter is, the Muslim faith believes that Jesus Christ did not have a divine nature. They do not believe he was God. Therefore, if he’s going to take the attitude, ‘Well, he’s just a scholar, he just happens to be Muslim, that he really didn’t care about this issue so much,’ he’s not a good Muslim.”
Bozell suggested there should be more focus on the author, especially considering the controversial premises involving Christianity he sets forth in his book.
“Why don’t they talk about the author?” he continued. “Why don’t they talk about the fact that he makes the statement which NPR had to correct, that nowhere in the Bible did Jesus Christ claim to be the Messiah, which is absolutely false. He’s also made the claim in his book — this is the man who’s such an expert on this, that the crucifixion was Jesus Christ fomenting violence in society. Apparently he’s not familiar with a thing called the beatitudes. He also suggested in the interview with Lauren Green, he said something very interesting — he said his book was based on 1,000 books that were used to make this book.”
“Now, Shannon, I don’t know about you, I have never in my life heard an author say that 1,000 books were his reference to do a book,” he continued.” And while we’re at it, he also said, more than once, that he had a degree in — a history degree in religion. In fact he doesn’t. So there are all sorts of holes you could poke in this man’s very, very biased and very, very one-sided book that is aimed to do nothing. But he also makes the point, and this is something [as] a Catholic, I take great offense to. There’s a very big difference between a historical Christ and what the Catholic Church has done to create a mythical Christ. No, there isn’t.”
He also pointed out that Green’s role at Fox News is one that doesn’t exist on other TV news networks, which puts Green in the unique position to ask those sorts of questions.
“Shannon, let’s put it in this perspective,” he added. “First of all, the media can’t stand you folks at Fox. There’s a headline you didn’t know. But what I find really curious, Lauren is the — I may be wrong and somebody correct me if I’m wrong, I do not believe there is another religion reporter on television today. Lauren Green is the only one in business today. So who in the world is to criticize Lauren Green at Fox News? … Let me just say one more thing — I know Lauren Green is a good, good woman. She doesn’t deserve to be attacked like this.”