Rap Bible Stories

“Gossip history” is what historians sneeringly call the National Enquirer type of “history” espoused in Kris Parker’s rap lyrics (“One Man’s Fusion of the Bible and Rap” by Steve Hochman, Aug. 13).

Gossip history is the stuff that impresses the gullible: The Mormons and their Indian pals being the Lost Tribe of Israel; England’s King Henry VII hiring writers to invent a genealogy that “proved” that the Welsh Tudors were direct descendants of Julius Caesar; the false claim that the Greek Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, was black.

Now this sort of pseudo-scholarly nonsense is being used to “prove” that certain Old-Testament Jews were black. And anyone who disagrees with Parker is, of course, a racist.

TOM BURNS

Acton