During our recent 2012 partisan campaign, with its familiar bipolar rhetoric regarding religion, we inevitably heard calls upon Jesus and the Founding Fathers, the latter among whom Thomas Jefferson stands as the most towering figure. Curiously, he supported both political sides. And he left an historical record, one that can...

Tikkun olam is a Hebrew phrase that suggests humanity's shared responsibility (with the Creator) "to heal, repair and transform the world." I've always thought of the world as divided by two kinds of people: those that respond to needs with advice and words, and those who lend a hand. Alan...

We see money in politics, in marriage and on the news, but it is still surprising that we find the suggestion so scandalous that there was money in early Christianity, something I suggest in my documentary "A Polite Bribe."

Most conservative scholars will view the money transaction through a...

Deep into the editing process of my film, "A Polite Bribe," the story of how Paul became the Founder of Christianity, through his "Collection," James Tabor sent me his latest Book, "Paul and Jesus."

Tabor is Chair of the UNC Charlotte, Religious Studies department, and well known...

Several times in Paul's writings He was forced to exaggerate his role as Apostle; no better example exists than his claim to have been "taken to heaven" where he received his famous "Thorn in the Flesh."

"And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations...

Before our recent screening of "A Polite Bribe" at Philadelphia's Landmark Theater, amid the storm of Sandusky scandal, I was confronted again by the real differences between Protestant and Catholic perspectives.

Though "A Polite Bribe" is the story of how Paul founded Christianity and the "bribe" that...

Headed for Judea, in 58 A.D., Paul begs the church in Rome to pray that the "unbelievers" (non Christian Jews) do not assassinate him and that the Jewish Christians accept his collection of gold. In...

First and foremost Jesus was a Messiah, an apocalyptic Jew, a king to be -- like Caesar. As one Gospel tells us, a Man who "brought a sword, not to unite, but to divide brother with brother." His words reflect this battle and God's reign, and like the Apostle Paul,...

For the past 200 years, after holy writ was placed under the microscope of modern science, an alternative view has espoused Jesus as the figurehead and Paul as Christianity's true founder.

Figurehead is a tricky word, but an accurate one, for if we accept Jesus as the historical figure --...

As the Christmas holiday descends upon us and the streets fill with festive symbols and music, we are reminded of the stories of old, those with divine encounters in the form of visions, angels or even ghosts.

We only need consider the ghosts of "A Christmas Carol," or Clarence the...

The Apostle Paul was, for much of his life, an abject failure who never knew the success of his Christianizing mission. From his letters, written 50-60 A.D., we know that most of his relationships deteriorated in the midst of his overbearing personality, Jesus' original 12 disciples could hardly tolerate the...