Billy Hallowell's Dishonest "Review" of Michael Paulkovich's book


Billy Hallowell published a piece in the (Glenn Beck-owned) network TheBlaze titled "Historians Eviscerate Writer's Claim That Jesus Was a Mythical Figure Who Never Walked the Earth." Hallowell's contribution relies solely upon a "review" by Candida Moss and Joel Baden in The Daily Beast which, to use Hallowell's word, I eviscerated, demonstrating how Moss and Baden got just about everything wrong and how Hallowell apparently never bothered to fact-check their work. I exposed the lazy, error-riddled and libelous "journalism" of Candida Moss and Joel Baden in an article in Free Inquiry available here for subscribers, and also posted here.

In fact, it is quite obvious that Moss, Baden and Hallowell wrote their reviews of No Meek Messiah without actually reading it. My book dismantles Christianity in many ways: the lack of evidence for "Jesus of Nazareth," the violent and dishonest history of Christendom and continuing harm it does, the unreliability of the Bible, and so forth. I believe the book subtitle captured my objectives perfectly: "Christianity's Lies, Laws and Legacy."

Hallowell's Twitter account describes him as follows: "Christian, husband, dad, author. @PureFlix comms guy. Bylines: WaPo, Faithwire, TheBlaze..."


When I sent a tweet to Hallowell about this subject early 2018, he immediately blocked me. He later un-blocked, but apparently has me "muted" as one can do on Twitter, thus he never sees my messages to him. I've tried many more times to ask him to remove his mendacious and libelous article from the internet, and I get no reply.

It's not a huge surprise that Mr. Hallowell apparently didn't even bother to fact-check Moss and Baden, many others perpetrated the same dishonest mode of discourse. If he had put any effort into it at all, he would have discovered the plethora of errors and fallacies in their hastily-cobbled and libelous article. Had they submitted that tripe to a reputable venue instead of The Daily Beast, Moss and Baden surely would have been rejected.

My lawyer advised me that it would be pointless to bring Moss, Baden, Hallowell and the others to court, but rather, that I should just fight fire with fire - expose their sloppy journalism, call them out on their errors and lies. That is the point of this article, the article in Free Inquiry, and others. Mr. Hallowell, won't you contact TheBlaze and have them remove your article? Wouldn't that be the fair and honest thing to do? I mean, WWJD?
Other dishonest Christians who read the Moss/Baden article but never read my book, yet published their own "reviews" are: Note that James McGrath quoted a promo for my first book:
No Meek Messiah exposes that Jesus believed in Noah’s Ark, Adam & Eve, Jonah living in a fish or whale, and Lot’s wife turning into salt.
James McGrath responds: "Jesus didn’t exist, but believed in things?"

Poor James McGrath doesn’t understand we can comment on fiction and fictional characters without believing they exist! Using his "logic" if we were upset the Grinch stole Christmas, that means we believe the Grinch is real!!!

In closing, note that American Atheist Press published a new edition of the book under a new, more appropriate title, Beyond the Crusades, with Foreword by Robert M. Price. It's available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and fine bookstores everywhere.