Is Accepting Christian Evidence Special Pleading?

[Minimalist]

From Stevie's article.

The only two events subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and that, between one and three years later, he was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate

Yet, when we ask what the evidence is for either of these events all we ever seem to get is "the gospels say so."

However, that runs up against another line in Stevie's article....one which he would prefer to ignore.

Little in the four canonical gospels is considered to be historically reliable