The Case For Christ

But the most eye-popping cache of documents I ever uncovered came
in a landmark case in which Ford Motor Company was charged with
reckless homicide for the fiery deaths of three teenagers in a
subcompact Pinto. It was the first time a U.S. manufacturer had
been criminally charged for allegedly marketing a dangerous
product. When I checked the court file in tiny Winamac, Indiana,
I found scores of confidential Ford memos revealing that the
automaker knew in advance that the Pinto could explode when
struck from behind at about twenty miles an hour. The documents
indicated that the automaker decided against improving the car's
safety to save a few dollars per vehicle and to increase its
luggage space.
A Ford lawyer, who happened to be strolling through the
courthouse, spotted me making photocopies of the documents.
Frantically he rushed into court to get a judicial order sealing
the file from the Public's view.
But it was too late. My story, headlined "Ford Ignored Pinto
Fire, Peril, Secret Memos Show," was bannered in the Tribune and
then flashed throughout the country.
AUTHENTICATING THE DOCUMENTS
Obtaining secret corporate memos is one thing; verifying their
authenticity is another. Before a journalist can publish their
contents or a prosecutor can admit the documents as evidence in a
trial, steps must be taken to make sure they're genuine.
Concerning the so-called Pinto papers, could the Ford letterheads
on which they were written be counterfeits? Could the signatures
be forgeries? How could I know for sure? And since the memos had
obviously been photocopied numerous times, how could I be
confident
that their contents hadn't been tampered with? In other words,
how could I be certain that each copied document was identical to
the original memo, which I didn't possess?
What's more, how could I be positive that these memos told the
whole story? After all, they represented just a small fraction of
the internal correspondence at Ford. What if there were other
memos, still hidden from the public's view, that would shed a
whole different light on the matter if they were revealed?
These are significant questions, and they're equally relevant in
examining the New Testament. When I hold a Bible in my hands,