As could have been expected, many conservatives in the media are portraying the Discovery Channel documentary on the so-called Jesus Tomb as yet another attempt by liberals to attack Christianity.  This is being done not only in Christian talk radio, but in secular media as well. This morning, for instance, I heard the guest host on The Mike Gallagher Show making this claim.  It may not have been a coincidence that this was done on a radio station owned by Salem Communications, a media group that promotes conservatism through both secular and Christian radio stations.

The idea that some liberals dislike Christianity is, of course, true.  But it is hardly the case for all liberals, even in Hollywood.  Being Christian is not a defining characteristic of conservatives, nor is being conservative a sine qua non for Christians.  But that is not the point I want to make here.

What I want to point out is the symbiotic relationship between religious conservatives and secular liberals.  While neither is necessary to the other’s existence, both receive nourishment from the other.  It gives religious conservatives great joy to score political points by declaring that a culture war is going on, while secular liberals are pleased as punch to define themselves over against those who are bigoted and closed-minded.

The truth, however, is much more nuanced, as it usually is.  There are bigoted conservatives and there are liberals who attack Christianity.  And while these elements are not the majority in either camp, they make for sensationalistic news bits, so the media has a tendency to focus on them.  But most liberals, even those who are not Christian, are not interested in attacking Christianity.  And most conservatives are not bigoted and closed-minded, and such bigotry among conservatives is not limited to religious conservatives.

All of this brings to mind a piece I read in Time several years ago.  It was an article about an advertisement urging parents to buy a product that would lock their toilets closed and prevent the tragedy of a child drowning in the toilet bowl.  The author’s point in the essay centered on the affect of our access to instant information from all over the world.

In previous times, if you heard about a tragedy, that meant that it had happened to someone you knew or someone in your community.  And that meant there was a very real possibility that this same thing could happen to you.  If a wolf attacked and killed your neighbor’s child, that meant there was a wolf in the area that might attack and kill your child.  You were right to take precautions.

Today, however, we hear about tragedies from all over the world.  But this does not mean that these tragedies are likely to happen to us.  If a wolf attacks a child in Germany, that does not mean people in Massachusetts are likely to get attacked by wolves.  But often, we localize and generalize based on things that we hear.  If a child somewhere in the world drowns in a toilet, we immediately feel that we must do something to protect our children, even though statistically there is almost no chance that such a freak accident would happen to anyone we know.

This is what is happening in America between secular liberals and religious conservatives.  Religious conservatives hear of a few liberals attacking Christianity and assume that all liberals are attacking Christianity.  Secular liberals hear of one bigoted religious conservative and generalize this into the idea that all religious conservatives are this way.  And in the process, both groups are strengthened in their positions by knowing that they have such an enemy, even an imaginary one.

I don’t know if The Jesus Tomb attacks Christianity or not.  It hasn’t been aired yet, so I haven’t seen it.  Of course, neither have any of the people who are claiming that it is an attack.  But merely presenting archaeological information and discussing a possible interpretation is not an attack on Christianity in any way, even if the show concludes that Jesus was not resurrected.  As a nation, we need to learn that just because someone disagrees with your most cherish belief does not mean that they are attacking you.

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