The Jesus Seminar consists of
about 150 critics opposed to the Bible and God who run lectures and workshops across the U.S. They teach the Bible is full
of errors and falsehoods, Jesus Christ is only a man who was not resurrected, sightings of Christ only the visionary
experiences of some disciples. They demand that believers prove that any Bible passage is actually historical,
claim the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas is more true than the Gospel of John.
The Jesus Seminar is backed by the Westar Institute non-profit foundation founded in 1986 spearheaded by now deceased
Robert Funk (1926-2005) who described Jesus' parables as containing shocking messages contradicting established
religious attitudes. It sponsors seminars and discussions of the Jesus Seminar and keeps
a directory of churches "receptive to the work of the Jesus Seminar."
The philosophy of the Jesus Seminar and Westar Institute is called Liberal Christianity
or sometimes Liberal Theology. Such writers present the Bible as non-factual, not divinely inspired but
narratives with superstitions. In the 1800s and 1900s they wrote in mockery of Bible accounts so that
by 1910 the Presbyterian Church felt it necessary to distinguish believers in genuine Christianity from false professors fronting
as “educated, ‘liberal’ Christians,” hence their name "Liberal."
Today Liberal Theology proponents
are entrenched throughout mainline churches. They have included William E Channing (1780-1842, Unitarian) who attacked the
Trinity and scriptures, Charles Filmore (1854-1948, a Unity Church founder), Leslie Weatherhead (1893-1976 author of The Christian
Agnostic), Hans Kung (1928- Catholic rejector of infallibility).
