The Five Gospels has some people seeing red—but not in the way its editors intended. When a Gary, Indiana newspaper last December reported on the book, some local residents demonstrated their disapproval by burning copies of the paper and canceling their subscriptions.

The offending article, “Biblical Scholars Take Words Out of Jesus’s Mouth—New Book Claims Jesus Didn’t Say 80% of What’s Attributed to Him,” appeared on the front page of the December 12, 1993 Post-Tribune. Written by David Crumm of the Knight-Ridder News Agency, the article reviewed the purpose and conclusions of the Jesus Seminar as represented in The Five Gospels, giving examples of the sayings traditionally attributed to Jesus that the Seminar’s scholars accepted as authentic, but also citing conclusions that some people found offensive (such as, “Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah and did not predict the end of the world”).