The New York Times is catching flack for last weekend’s coverage of the Catholic Church’s Easter Mass. The passage at issue:
Easter is the celebration of the resurrection into heaven of Jesus, three days after he was crucified, the premise for the Christian belief in an everlasting life.
The Times caught the mistake later and issued a correction, noting that Easter celebrates Jesus rising from the tomb but not his ascension into heaven. Newsbusters calls the error “mortifying,” but it’s more revealing about the paper itself.
If you don’t understand the faith, it’s a matter of semantics. Jesus came back after being crucified, and went to heaven – so being “resurrected into heaven” may seem like an accurate shorthand description to the reporter and copy editors responsible for the gaffe. Sure, it’s wrong, but understandable for the ill-informed on the topic.
It’s probably not a good idea to get your religious information from the New York Times, anyway. You don’t get your news at church, after all.
Jim Eltringham 