What these people don't understand, what Mel Gibson and his ilk don't understand, is that the literal truth of Jesus' story isn't what animates Christian belief. Many of us are awed by the figurative beauty of a story that created a system of values and beliefs that has survived for 2,000 years and has a reasonable possibility of surviving even Italian vamp Monica Bellucci's depiction of Mary Magdalene in Gibson's vanity outing. Actually, the literal truth of Jesus' story is precisely what animates Christian belief. St. Paul dicusses it at length in 1 Cor: 15.
Mr. Beam might think about reading his Bible again.