Dear me…lying prostate to pray is very Catholic.

I concur with your take on the New Testament and Jesus…Isus or Yeshua or Joshua: all which can mean ‘God emerges.’ or God Helps.

So in that regard, I really like the Gnostics and the Cathars takes on what it means to be an imperfect human. Some of the old Essenes rituals bear uncanny similarities to the resurrection of Jesus.

A lot of the tragedy comes from an inability or unwillingness to read the Bible as allegory rather than as divine word, or read the Bible as mythology rather than as unassailable dogma.

The Pagan Christ, written by Tom Harpur, a retired Canadian Anglican Minister, is one very compelling read and addresses this very point and the difficulty so many Christian denominations get into when believing the Bible as God’s word.

Thanks for respectfully writing this excellent piece of journalism…you let us make up our own minds and read between the lines. I liked that.