FILMMAKERS' “TRUTHINESS” Part 3 of 3 reactions to the Tomb of Jesus Controversy

Well, the evidence has been seen, and debated by intellects far superior to my own. They have stretched the nature of their findings and drawn spectacular conclusions from relatively non-sensational findings. I think I pointed out a few critical holes in their reasoning last time and James White has, in my opinion, hit it out of the park in his blog postings alone (www.aomin.org). I shudder to think what his book will do to Cameron and Jacobovici’s collective self-esteem. I pity you sirs! But that’s not really what I wanted to talk about. I thought a brief word should be made regarding the medium by which this finding was given to the public.
Film. I love movies and I love the study of film. Film is a powerful thing. It has the ability to make the ordinary dramatic. This can and is often unavoidable in documentary film. Things are dramatized when you put them on film, no matter what. That’s why we need responsible, thoughtful, filmmakers.
Film can move an audience to make significant decisions. Don’t think so? Look at the French Film Indigines, the story of North African soldiers who helped liberate France in WWII. Upon the film’s debut, pensions, previously crystallized, i.e., denied to the soldiers, will finally be released. A film so powerful, it changed legislation.
Now, think about how Cameron and Jacobovici are using their documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus. Their bias is in the title. It’s not “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” with a question mark. It is the tomb of Jesus Christ. Is this responsible, well thought, documentary filmmaking?
Cameron is quoted, “Well, I think that there’s a lot more investigations that have to be done. It would be nice to get access to the tomb again, take more patina samples. There are some inscriptions there that have not been translated yet. There are things that still need to be studied. There are other tombs in the region that need to be studied.”

So, you’re making a documentary film, claiming to have found the ossuary of Jesus Christ, without finishing THE DOCUMENTATION?! Can I say that again? You’re showing me a DOCUMENTARY film that has yet to be fully DOCUMENTED? I don’t know if this seems wrong to anyone else, but to me, this seems undeniably irresponsible considering how, seemingly, confident they are in their proposition. Both men, while being interviewed, repeatedly stated, “we’re not theologians, and we’re not archaeologists.”

Ok, I get it. Because you’re not experts, you’re just filmmakers, you’re not responsible for dressing up, dramatizing, and promoting, incomplete, hasty and altogether questionable scholarship? So, now, not only are they demonstrably incompetent in the areas of theology and Christian faith, but, apparently, have allowed their bias and presuppositions to taint their credibility as documentary filmmakers. Anybody else laughing yet?