WELCA Rants About 'The Bible'

The television mini-series, The Bible has been a ratings winner for the History Channel (over 12 million people watching the final show) and has been the talk of media outlets, twitter and the general population. Franklin Graham said, "This mini-series will cause many people to take an interest in the Bible that otherwise might not have." How awesome is that? God's Word portrayed on television drawing people to Himself!

But in typical ELCA fashion, the ELCA-wide group, Women of the ELCA (WELCA) does not like the high impact mini-series, The Bible, which is no surprise based on the way the denomination seems to view the actual Bible. The other day I come across a post on Facebook by WELCA (April 1st) pointing to a blog on their website blasting the show. The post said,

“Today's blogger takes a critical look at the History Channel's series 'The Bible.' Popular, yes? Accurate, no.” Then WELCA provided a link to their article (see the WELCA facebook page here)

So what was the WELCA blogger's problem that caused her to claim, “The mini-series 'The Bible' retold one of the most heinous lies”? Reading the article we find that the blogger doesn't like the skin color of some of the actors. That's right. The blogger admits, “I only watched the first episode” but then says, “I didn’t need to see any more after the blonde Noah spoke with something between a Welsh and Scottish accent. That was enough because watching that first installment was like witnessing a reckless April Fool’s Day joke.”

She continues, “I don’t need to watch White producers and actors stretch an old lie into the future” and “We are not supposed to lie.” Going into a full-on rant she says, “Jesus was not White. Noah was not White. Adam was not White. No one in ancient biblical times was White. And there were only a few 'Gentiles' in the New Testament and they were not Northern European Gentiles. Wake up!” (see here)

Really!! Does this author know the skin color of Adam? (if she even believes in a historical Adam, that is) Does she know what Noah and Jesus looked like? Does it matter?

I find it interesting that Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America says the people associated with the mini-series are perpetuating lies (and I reject that claim) while WELCA itself is part of a denomination that believes the Bible is filled with lies.