Could someone please, please hand me a polo mallet: The new U.S. News & World Report is now on stands, and we here at The Cup of Joe have a message we'd like to send to headline writers and cover designers that won't require the senses of speech or hearing.If you recall, a few weeks ago over at U.S. News Abraham Lincoln was on the cover in a story about the U.S. Civil War, since editors can't seem to find a current war to highlight. On this cover they declared the Gettysburg address to be "America's greatest speech," which might be an overstatement considering that it probably wasn't even Lincoln's greatest speech.
This week, it's Baby Jesus and Mary Mother of God on the cover, as U.S. News Reporters go IN SEARCH OF THE REAL JESUS so that the faithful can finally get answers to some nettlesome questions.
Moreover, we are told by a headline writer: "New research questions whether he was more teacher than savior."
This is, quite possibly, the dumbest subhead ever to appear on a major U.S. newsweekly. Can't someone be both a teacher and a savior? They are not mutually exclusive.
Is this supposed to be some sort of divine revelation about Jesus based on "new" research? Have these people ever even bothered to read the New Testament, where different books emphasize different aspects of his personality, such as the prayerful and forgiving and very human Jesus of Luke or the emphasis on "Jesus as God" and "Jesus as divine" in the gospel of John. Nor should there be any news flash about the "gnostic gospels" mentioned in this issue, because these really haven't been a secret for, oh, I don't know, decades.
We are sure this issue will sell very well among the faithful hoping for new insight into the texts they hold sacred, just as U.S. News holds as equally sacred the selling of lots of magazines and the generation of ad revenue from the pharameceutical industry.
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