Q: Did your perception of the historical Jesus change as a result of writing Jesus Goes to Hollywood?
A: Yes. As you know, there are many people who believe that Jesus was a myth, and I cover that theory in my book. But doing the research actually strengthened my belief that he was a real person, and a rather admirable one at that.
Q: You do not include any channeled teachings about Jesus or information obtained psychically by people like Edgar Cayce. Why?
A: It is not out of any disrespect for those sources. Some of them have very interesting things to say. It is just that my approach to research is traditional. Even so, as my readers have discovered, the evidence I find often leads me down some very surprising paths.
Q: You seem to express a very liberal morality in one or two of your chapters. How do you respond to this?
A: A few people make the mistake that I personally embrace every idea I discuss in the book. I survey many controversial biblical interpretations and evidence in Jesus Goes to Hollywood. I do this as an historian, not as an attempt to promote any particular moral code. I certainly agree that The Golden Rule is an ethic for everyone to live by, but I do not look to the Bible as the guidebook for my personal morality since I believe that modern Western society practices a higher level of ethics than is expressed in many parts of the Bible. For example, the Old Testament approves of slavery, but in the modern Western world we do not. The Old Testament condones the death penalty by brutal methods like stoning for things like improper worship or adultery. The Old Testament calls for the slaughter of animals for ritual purposes, which is considered cruel by most people today, as it should be. There are times when my personal moral values reflect those being discussed in the book, and there are other times when they do not.
