Nun Shames Fox News With Thought-Provoking Reza Aslan Interview (VIDEOS)

Long before the Fox propaganda machine created the controversy that could be known as “Reza-gate,” there was another interview that until Thursday had gone almost unnoticed by the media. Two weeks ago, religious scholar Reza Aslan interviewed with Sister Rose Pacatte of Ignation News Network (INN) on her show INNdustry with Sr. Rose.

Ignation News Network is a global web-based news outlet that seeks “To connect online audiences with PEOPLE, STORIES, and EVENTS in and around Jesuit works through brief web videos uniquely presented through an Ignatian lens.” Sr. Rose came forward Thursday with a complete interview and article regarding her discussion with Aslan about his book Zealot: the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Sister Rose says:

About two weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview Reza Aslan author of the new best-seller Zealot: the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Now with the Reza Aslan interview trending on Fox News, here’s my complete interview in nine parts!

Sister Rose conducted an interview that was respectful, intelligent, inquisitive, charming, challenging, thought-provoking, unprejudiced, and everything that Fox News is not. Whatever her background may be in journalism, Sr. Rose has a very likable personality that encourages people to listen, and she knows how to accomplish an effective interview. She is now republishing all nine excerpts from her interview, which challenge the talking heads at Fox News.

Sr. Rose did address Aslan’s book with a number of questions, but she also followed Aslan’s example and wanted to know more about “the man who created the work.” Aslan discussed many things in his personal life such as, growing up in the 1980s as an Iranian-American immigrant, his conversion to Christianity and then re-establishing his faith in Islam, his personal “obsession” with Jesus, his target audience for the book, his thoughts on Pope Francis, and what his future writing plans might be.

There are two excerpts from the interview that I thought were most interesting in regards to the book. The two of them also discussed two main topics that Aslan addresses in his book:

The Audience of the Gospels was Non-Jews
Jesuits, Justice and Jesus

My Sources

Aslan and Sr. Rose discuss the great number of sources for his research, and why he included research from a few controversial sources that he didn’t necessarily agree with. Aslan details the particular research he finds fault with and why he thought it critical to detail that work in his book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qJEbVYAlPE

Jesus — Truth or Inspiration?

Sr. Rose asks Aslan to explain his thoughts on “truth in the Bible.” Sr. Rose agrees that “truth” is a relatively new concept in terms of the Bible. Aslan explains that the Bible is “not about revealing facts.” It’s about revealing truths.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=15hIpfcTwBY

Of course, in the imaginary world of the far-right delusional paranoid fundamentalist nuts that never actually read the Bible, Sister Rose Pacatte’s article means nothing, and she knows nothing of religion. On the same day that Sr. Rose apparently got fed up and decided to republish her interview, Glenn Beck, “the real religious expert,” released his own little rant of made up claims and false interpretations of Bible passages.

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Edited/Published by: SB

"...And so I say to all of you here and to all in the nation tonight that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future. This great rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all--all, black and white, North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They are our enemies, not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too--poverty, disease and ignorance--we shall overcome." ~excerpt from speech by President Lyndon B Johnson, given two days after the start of the Selma Marches in an event that became known as Bloody Sunday.