Beliefnet News

Does a tiny, recently unveiled scrap of papyrus prove that Jesus Christ had a wife? If so, it would contradict the Gospels and throw the entire New Testament and Christianity itself into doubt.

However, the fragment itself is increasingly in doubt with the Smithsonian Channel postponing indefinitely the airing of an hour-long documentary on the document – and reports that a prominent academic journal scheduled to publish findings on the fragment has decided to hold off.

The papyrus fragment

The first announcements about the discovery came from a professor at Harvard University Divinity School, Professor Karen L. King, a historian of early Christianity, who announced that an anonymous German collector had provided her with the fragment of ancient Coptic text – but could provide no details of when or where it was unearthed or by whom.

On the fragment, Jesus is quoted as using the words “my wife.”

Amid the flash of cameras and hubbub of a dazzled news media, Dr. King picked her words carefully and stopped short of endorsing the authenticity of the fragment. She declared she was making the finding public “despite many unresolved questions” – so that her academic colleagues could weigh in, according to Laurie Goodstein reporting in the New York Times.

“And weigh in, they have,” noted Goodstein. “A few said that the papyrus must be a forgery. Others have questioned Dr. King’s interpretation of its meaning. Some have faulted her for publishing a paper on an item of unknown provenance. And many have criticized her decision to give the scrap of papyrus the attention-getting title ‘The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,’ as if it had equal weight to other, lengthier texts.”

In Rome, the Vatican called the piece “problematic” and falsified, according  to Elisabetto Povoledo, also reporting in the Times.

The Smithsonian Channel was the first to back away from the fragment – postponing the broadcast of a quickly thrown-together Continued on Page 2

Authorities in Dallas are grappling with prostitution by taking some uncommon measures. Rather than sending prostitutes directly to jail, officers are giving them a unique opportunity — to turn their lives around, get off of streets and begin a process of life-altering transformation.

To combat the illegal activity, which has apparently become quite pervasive, the Dallas Police Department launched the Prostitution Diversion Initiative (PDI) five years ago, a combined effort of police, social services and other local groups.

Photo Credit: Dallas Police Department

Officers found themselves frustrated over the prospect of arresting the same women repeatedly, CBN News reports. So, they launched a solution — one that has been wildly successful in helping people escape cycles of criminal activity.

“It allows us to move the prostitutes from the wheel of going around in the criminal justice system on a regular basis to moving into a recovery mode,” explains Dallas Police Lt. Mike Coleman said. ”(We) realized we were not going to arrest our way out of this.”

How does it work, you ask? Rather than arresting women and holding them like criminals, authorities take a different, albiet, more controversial approach: They treat them like victims. On the surface, some may accuse police of being too soft on crime, but Coleman explains that this particular program allows for individuals engaging in prostitution to gain access to much-needed services that can help to stop criminal patterns.

“When you treat them as a victim, that’s what allows them to get the services that they need for whatever is ailing them, be it drug addiction, be it whatever counseling needs they have, for whatever it is that’s causing them to be engaged in this lifestyle,” he explained. 

CBN News explains how the program works:

One night a month police set up a mobile command center near a local truck stop where hookers find their clients. Officers make arrests for prostitution and other crimes.

The women are given a choice: jail or a chance at a new life via the PDI 45-day program.

Only those who are charged with a misdemeanor can participate in the program. If they accept the offer, the services range from job counseling, to mental health services to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

Since PDI’s launch, authorities have detained more than 700 prostitutes. While nearly half of them have opted to join the program, not all have completed it. Still, the results are encouraging. The Dallas Police Department’s web site further explains the details involved:

Once arrested, the detainee is taken to a remote bookin; where the field operations are being held. She is searched and relieved of any contraband, then taken for a medical screening. The Dallas County Heath and Human Services test for any sexually transmitted diseases and HIV right on-site in their mobile laboratory.

After testing they are taken before a on-site Judge. The Judge determines if she is to be transported to the Dallas County Jail or enrolled in one of the treatment centers available on-site, all according to her criminal history and other factors; The women have the opportunity to accept this offer or go to jail. PDI is a 100% volunteer based program.

By being pro-active, giving these women the necessary tools to be productive citizens not only benefits the women and the surrounding communities; it allows Law Enforcement to take less of a re-active approach to prostitution.

After competition of the program, women are encouraged to launch new and improved lives. Volunteers help them locate homes, connect with family members and gain employment, among other key services.

Karen Green’s story exposes just one of the many successes. Green, a former prostitute and drug addict, found God in the process of cleaning up her life. Now, she‘s volunteering once per month and praying that other women can find the same peace she’s been given.

“When I come out here, I just walk the grounds and I claim it for Jesus and every woman that comes through the PDI,” she said. ”I pray over her and ask the Lord to give her just the strength to say yes, that she wants help,” she said.

In a dozen seasons coaching the Washington Redskins, Coach Joe Gibbs led them to eight playoff appearances, four championship titles and three Super Bowl trophies. Then, he retired only to get into NASCAR racing – again piling up the wins.

As a result, Gibbs has spent a lot of his life giving pep talks – sketching out game plans on a chalkboard, inspiring his team to get out there and do whatever it takes to win.

He’s put 40 of those locker room chats down on paper in a sequel to his bestselling Game Plan for Life. The new book is Game Plan for Life Chalk Talks. Each chapter is based on a key moment in his life. And he admits some of it has not been pretty.

Joe Gibbs

Gibbs is living proof of the athlete who compensates with heart and hustle whatever he lacks in athletic ability. After a successful college career as quarterback for San Diego State University, Gibbs says he had to accept the truth that he wasn’t good enough to play pro football.

So, he focused his love for the game on coaching. Perhaps it was that personal disappointment – accepting that he’d never be an NFL quarterback – that drove his coaching style. Sports filmmaker Steve Sabol says Gibbs built “championship teams with many players who have had mediocre to average careers while playing for other NFL teams.”

He saw something in them that they couldn’t see. And he inspired them to greatness.

“When I came out of school, I wanted to play pro sports,” he recalls. “But I wasn’t good enough. So, I said ‘Hey I’ll volunteer and start coaching.’ I felt like I’d probably end up coaching junior high.”

Instead, his longtime coach and mentor Don Coryell assigned him to help a then-unknown assistant coach – John Madden, who went on to coach the Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl and provide several decades of TV sports commentary before he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Under Coryell and Madden, Gibbs became an effective offensive line coach at San Diego State, then was recruited to work at Florida State. Then, he served under John McKay at the University of Southern California and Frank Boyles at Arkansas. After that, Coryell recruited him to help out with the St. Louis Cardinals. Then McKay called him to come be an assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Then, Gibbs rejoined Coryell with the San Diego Chargers, but in 1981, Redskins’ owner Jack Kent Cooke asked him to become head coach in Washington.

Gibbs in command

“Only through a miraculous set of circumstances did I get to coach in the National Football League,” marvels Gibbs. “I’ve been blessed beyond belief. Most people never get to live one dream. I’ve gotten to live two” — NFL football and NASCAR.

Given his ability to pull the best out of mediocre players, does he ever wish he’d had a coach who could have done the same for him?

Almost indignantly, Gibbs disputes that any of his players were ever mediocre. Then, he applauds Coryell for inspiring him to coach.

“I had probably one of the best coaches who’s ever been in any kind of sports. He belongs in the Football Hall of Fame. But physically I was just an average athlete. I wanted it and went after it hard. I was coachable, but I was limited, so Don inspired me to put my love of football into coaching.

“I think that’s where the Lord wanted me to be – and that started my journey.”

As a college player, was Gibbs a Christian?

“I gave my life to Christ at 9 years old,” he remembers. “The first big decision I had in life came when I was in the third grade at a small elementary school in Sand Hill, North Carolina. I can remember in school being told that two amoeba happen to hit in a muddy puddle of water two billions years ago and I was the result.

“They were saying I was an accident. I was looking at that and now my grandmother had told me something completely different. In church, the pastor had told me something totally different, too – that there is a loving God who is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving who knit me together in my mother’s womb – who made me special and different.

Joe, his wife, Pat, and their grandkids

“God put this whole world together and He wanted to have a personal relationship with me. So, it was an easy decision.

“In life, that’s probably the decision almost every single one of us is going to make it at some point.

“Do you want to believe you are an accident? This world was created as marvelous as it is by a great and loving God. We can’t find another world like this anywhere.”

So, having become a Christian, was he pure and holy his entire childhood and as a teen and a college student?

“No,” admits Gibbs. “I veered away from God for periods in my life. But I was put around a number of godly guys such as Head Coach Frank Broyles at the University of Arkansas, or schoolteacher Raymond Barry, and, of course, Don Coryell. I could see these guys were living for God.”

Did his faith change the way he coaches?

“It obviously changes you and your life and the way you look at things. I think in the coaching world, it changed my outlook on things.”

Gibbs speaks to a men’s group

“It does influence every part of your life and it influences every decision you make.”

So, once he submitted to God’s game plan, his life an easy, fulfilling road to success? Not at all, admits Gibbs. “We’re all human. We don’t stick to the plan. There are several different periods in my life where I wasn’t listening to God.

“When I got the job in 1981 with the Redskins, I looked at my life and said ‘Well, I could get fired at any time, so I will use this platform, coaching the Redskins, to become financially successful.’

“So, I ventured off without studying God’s game plan for me, the Bible, and wound out getting into a financial disaster. Everybody else involved filed bankruptcy. It was a monumental mess. If I’d only followed a very important principle in God’s Word, never co-sign other people’s loans!

“I let a lot of other people sign me to loans without me even being there, that’s how foolish I was.”

When coaching, did Gibbs ever pray for a win? “That’s always an interesting question,” he said with a chuckle. “I always pray that He will help us to be at our absolute best. I ask Him to help me be the best coach I can be.”

Is it fair to put God on the spot – since the other coach is probably also praying for a win?

“I think all of us in sport are probably guilty of that at some point,” said Gibbs. “I think I used to feel guilty about being a coach, too. It’s almost like ‘Hey, why don’t you get a real job?’ but I came to the conclusion that God makes football players, racecar drivers, owners and, yes, coaches. I think God made me to be a coach and he’s blessed me with opportunities. My goal is to try and be the best coach that I can be.

What should a coach’s highest priority be? Winning? Developing character? Making a name for himself?

“You know, I’ve pondered that a lot and my answer is, for me, number one in my life should be my relationship with God. Second in my life should be the impact that I’m having on others. That can be my kids, my wife, my friends, business people that I’m around, my grandkids – the influence I have on others.

“So where does that put my occupation? Third.

“I think if God has given you great gifts to do certain things, then you don’t want to waste them. If your occupation is the third most important thing in your life, you are going to be successful.

“Because of the other two priorities, you are going to get there early, you are going to stay late, you’re going to put everything into your job.

“For me, it was long hours with the Redskins. It was sleeping at the office three nights a week. It was getting after it.”

Gibbs and the Redskins’ three Super Bowl trophies

Gibbs says that coaching can be one of the most important jobs anybody ever undertakes.

“If you think about where we are currently in America, coaching is one of the few places that’s left where we have discipline. Youth coaches have a huge impact on those young people he or she’s working with.

“Some of the people who had the most impact on me were my coaches.

“What kind of an impact do you want to leave on this earth? It’s not going to be the money. It’s not going to be football games – who won or lost. It’s not going to be NASCAR, how many races we won.”

NASCAR? Yes, once Joe’s football coaching years drew to an end, his good friend Don Meredith suggested he look at the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Joe Gibbs Racing was launched in 1991 with major sponsors Home Depot, FedEx, Mars Candy, Coca Cola and, later, Toyota eager to join a proven winner.

At last count, the Gibbs racing team has won three NASCAR Cup championships. In the Sprint series, the team includes driver Denny Hamlin’s #11 FedEx Toyota Camry, Kyle Busch’s #18 M&M’s Camry and Joey Logano in the #20 Home Depot Camry. They also field Brian Scott in the #11 Dollar General Camry, the #18 Sport Clips/Pizza Ranch Camry driven by Hamlin, Michael McDowell and Mark Martin as well as the #20 GameStop/Sport Clips Camry for Logano and Hamlin. The team’s research and development department recently won the East Division of the NASCAR Camping World.

Gibbs Racing is no small project — the main race shop is in Huntersville, North Carolina, has 450 employees working at a 250,000-square-foot facility.

Racing hasn’t been without its challenges. After Michigan’s 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR did a spot check using a dynometer to test the horsepower of randomly selected cars. They found throttle pedals on two Joe Gibbs cars had been manipulated illegally using magnets. Gibbs immediately announced “we will take full responsibility and accept any penalties NASCAR levies against us” and “we will also investigate internally how this incident took place and who was involved and make whatever decisions are necessary to ensure that this kind of situation never happens again.”

NASCAR then made a regulation change specifically to Toyotas which mandated them to run a smaller restrictor plate to cut horsepower by estimated 15 to 20 horsepower. Interestingly, after the rules changed, Toyotas went on to win 20 of the 35 races in the season. All but one of those wins were by Joe’s cars.

Gibbs says there’s an important lesson here: integrity. “What kind of an impact do you want to leave on this earth?” he asks. “I’ve made mistakes — financially, occupationally, health-wise but that’s reason why I wrote my book – to lead people to realize that if we have a game plan for football and a game plan for NASCAR and if we have a game plan for business, then shouldn’t we have a game plan for life, too?

“To me an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving God wouldn’t leave us here without a game plan. I look at life as a game and God is our head coach. He left us with a game plan and the question is ‘Are we studying it?”

“Those times when I veered away from God’s playbook, the Bible, I got in trouble. But when I followed the game plan I had some measure of success.”

The name of his books are Game Plan for Life and Game Plan for Life Chalk Talks.

Does he feel like God had a specific plan for him?

“Definitely. I wanted to be competitive and take off in life and be successful. When I look back on it, how do you take an average guy who was only an average college football player—somebody who thought he’s never going to be coaching any higher than junior high school – he winds up getting to coach the Washington Redskins to three Super Bowl wins.

“Are you kidding me? It had to be God’s hand.”

Defying skeptics and attracting TV viewers yearning for inspiration, the premiere episode of Jeff Foxworthy’s American Bible Challenge game show shattered all records for the Game Show Network.

Team Minnie’s Food Pantry

“GSN’s highly anticipated original series garnered the network’s highest delivery in its 17-year history with 2.3 million total viewers for the night and 1.7 million total viewers for its series premiere at 8 pm ET on Thursday,” reported the TV News Desk of the industry website Broadway World.  

“Thursday night’s premiere was a mega-hit debuting as the #1 program on GSN — EVER!” reported  a network spokesperson.

The show, hosted by the folksy commedian Foxworthy, outperformed GSN’s previous record by over half a million viewers and “solidified itself as a destination program by posting triple digit gains from its strong lead-in across all demos,” reported GSN in network jargon. Compared to other shows it its time slot, the original series ranked among the Top 5 cable networks in total viewers, women 25-54 and viewers 25-54 in its time period.

“The best-selling book of all time is now GSN’s most viewed program of all time, which proves that consumers are yearning for fun, family- friendly entertainment,” said Amy Introcaso-Davis, the network’s executive vice president of programming and development.  “We are incredibly proud of this show and are happy that it connected with so many viewers. This Bible-based show is a first, and we expect not the last, for mainstream television. 

“There were naysayers, there were doubters,” she admitted.

Indeed, viewers apparently weren’t swayed by the Washington Post‘s yawning review: “is just as dull as it sounds, like mandatory fun time at Sunday School.”

Fortunately, New York Daily News‘ TV reviewer David Hinckley disagreed: “Anyone who knows even a little about the Bible will be unable to resist playing along and matching answers with the teams on the screen.”  

“Never under-estimate the appeal of Foxworthy,” said the Atlanta Constitution‘s Rodney Ho. “Foxworthy adds a level of comfort and humor that is light, but not disrespectful of the contestants or the topics at hand,” who predicted that GSN may have a “hit for many years to come.”

Click here for Foxworthy, Charities Team up for American Bible Challenge.

The first season continues for the next nine weeks until a winning team is crowned and goes home with $100,000 for their charity.  Tune-in to GSN every Thursday night at 8pm/7pm Central to see who will make it to the finale!