Yeah, I'm not sure about this...

So a lady named Rose Mary Sheldon suggests that the Apostle Paul might have been a Roman spy sent to infiltrate the Christian church.

Now, this would ordinarily be a problem mostly for her and whomever might be embarrassed when she deployed this wacky notion. But Col. Sheldon teaches history; in fact she's the head of the history department at the Virginia Military Institute. So she's responsible for teaching young folks about history. It not completely disturbing that she has some crackpot ideas -- my high school US History teacher, Mr. Love, could throw some curveballs with the best of them, for example.

But the thought process that's involved in dreaming up a Roman initiative to spy on what was at the time a minor religion seen mainly as a Jewish sect, whose appeal was limited to mostly poor folks and slaves? To suggest that Paul, whose early opposition to Christianity was based on what he saw as the blasphemous idea Jesus was the Son of God, would work for pagan Romans and pretend to convert to this faith? It seems like there's a pattern of overlooking ideas that don't match the theory simply because they don't match the theory. The idea of that kind of thinking underlying what students are taught at VMI is a little nervous-making.

Col. Sheldon's bio says that one of the fields of her doctorate is Roman provincial archaeology. One hopes she eventually digs up a clue.

(H/T Dustbury)