By Gary T. McDonald, author of The Gospel of Thomas (the Younger) ~ W hat happened? How did the wise, compassionate, Buddhist-like teachings of the Sermon on the Mount end up morphing into this highly judgmental believe-or-burn imperative religion? Well, who invented Christianity? The Apostle Paul did more to spread the Christian cult throughout the Roman Empire and into Western culture than anyone else. Paul’s letters and, later, the Gospels of his followers, Mark, then Luke and Mathew, are the earliest Christian writings and sources of history we have. And they were all written decades after Jesus’ death. Jesus’ brother James became the leader of the Jerusalem-based “Way Followers” after Jesus’ crucifixion. We know from Paul’s letters and The Acts of the Apostles that there were significant disagreements between James and Paul on various issues. We have no writings from the Jerusalem “Way Followers” at all. We only have a summation of these disagreements from the Pauline ca...

By Gary T. McDonald, author of The Gospel of Thomas (the Younger) W hy do Fundamentalists hate James? I don’t have a lot of conversations with them, but not too long ago my mother’s caregiver tried to engage me on the subject. She had come for her shift on a Sunday directly from church where some guy there had opined that James’ Epistle should be kicked out of the Bible. The caretaker wanted my opinion, but obviously sympathized with her church friend. Now, I tended to avoid all discussion of politics and religion with this woman. She cared well for my mom and I wanted to keep things on an even keel. So I just said, “Interesting,” and left the room. I didn’t tell her that many scholars doubt that James even wrote the Epistle and I didn’t ask for her friend’s arguments. I suspected she would tell me that the James letter’s statement (in Chapter 2: 17) that “faith without works is dead” (meaning you can’t be saved by faith alone) clashes directly with Paul (and Luther’s) teachings....