{"id":2667,"date":"2011-05-19T10:50:28","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T16:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2667"},"modified":"2011-05-19T12:03:29","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T18:03:29","slug":"you-know-how-it-is-in-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2667","title":{"rendered":"“You know how it is in the Middle East …”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read this CNN story about Osama bin Laden’s relatives wanting proof of death <\/a>and was smacked with the 2×4 of irony.<\/p>\n

It’s in this sentence, quoting writer Jean Sasson, apparently a ghostwriter to the family:<\/p>\n

You know how it is in the Middle East so many times: They really need proof or people start believing — this has been discussed by a lot more people than me — that many people will not believe that he’s dead…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So if the Romans had dropped that troublesome prophet guy in the Mediterranean 2,000 years ago instead of leaving him up on the cross, there would have been no Christianity? No witnesses to the allegedly empty tomb? It certainly would have affected the character of the religion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read this CNN story about Osama bin Laden’s relatives wanting proof of death and was smacked with the 2×4 of irony. It’s in this sentence, quoting writer Jean Sasson, apparently a ghostwriter to the family: You know how it is in the Middle East so many times: They really need proof or people start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,15],"class_list":["post-2667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christianity","tag-islam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-H1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":827,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=827","url_meta":{"origin":2667,"position":0},"title":"Little boxes, little boxes, little boxes full of Bible people","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"During the 2002 American Academy of Religion-Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum had a well-timed display of the so-called \"James ossuary.\"It was a 1st-century CE stone box of a type used in the Middle East back then for storage of cleaned and dismembered skeletons\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1109,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1109","url_meta":{"origin":2667,"position":1},"title":"It’s Been Linked with the Darkness!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Confront your misgivings! Join the Rev. Peter Owen-Jones, Anglican priest, into this journey into the deepest heart of darkness -- among some ordinary-seeming Australian Witches.\"I'm aware of certain objects, quite frankly, that have always disturbed me.\"A giggle-worthy proof that pith-helmet anthropology of religion lives on. Will the Rev. Owen-Jones go\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":911,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=911","url_meta":{"origin":2667,"position":2},"title":"Drumming to Save Their Lives","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"On the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East (across from Alaska), indigenous people are engaged in a work of cultural survival.\"Everyone of my generation speaks the Koryak language, knows the customs, dances, dishes like in the ancient times. But some of our children don't know anything at all,\" said folk\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"anthropology\"","block_context":{"text":"anthropology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=anthropology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3622,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3622","url_meta":{"origin":2667,"position":3},"title":"Last Yuletide News Bits","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 This is your brain. This is your brain on Christmas. \u2022 \"How the Lawyers Stole Winter\"\u00a0 \u2014 are we raising kids who can't cope? No, it's not Yule-related, directly. Indirectly, yes, I would argue. You have to embrace all of the wheel. \u2022 No matter how \"imagistic\" it may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"childhood\"","block_context":{"text":"childhood","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=childhood"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/SantaPickuptruck1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3636,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3636","url_meta":{"origin":2667,"position":4},"title":"World Religions versus the Blue Bra Revolution","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Washington Post writer Sally Quinn looks at photos of Egyptian soldiers beating an abaya-shrouded Muslim woman, and a light bulb goes on for her about major religions: Why would men, particularly under the guise of religious belief, want to keep women down? Because they understand that women\u2019s sexuality is something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":873,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=873","url_meta":{"origin":2667,"position":5},"title":"Wicca and Christianity","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I have not yet seen it, but English scholar Jo Pearson has a new book, Wicca and the Christian Heritage. Amazon-UK link here.From the publisher's catalog:What is Wicca? Is it witchcraft, Paganism, occultism, esotericism, magic, spirituality, mysticism, nature religion, secrecy, gnosis, the exotic or 'other'? Wicca has been defined by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2667"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2669,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667\/revisions\/2669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}