There is a near universal consensus among modern biblical scholars that the authentic letters of Paul were written after the crucifixion, but before the four Gospels. Paul’s seven undisputed letters are dated between roughly 50–60 CE, while the Gospels are generally dated to 70 CE or later.

According to the New Testament (specifically Acts), Paul was a Jew or Roman citizen by birth.  He was a trained Pharisee and a skilled artisan; likely a tent maker or leather worker. He was an educated elite who initially persecuted early Christians before becoming an influential Apostle, using his trade to support his missionary work among both Jewish and Gentile communities

Paul did not meet Jesus before the crucification. Rather, Paul the is said to have met the resurrected Jesus (Acts 9:1–19) in a vision and audible encounter on the road to Damascus. This event occurred in the early 30’s A.D. Likely 2–7 years after Jesus’ crucifixion.

This experience caused his immediate conversion from persecuting Christians to becoming a major apostle.

Paul’s letters are generally dated to around 50–60 CE, while the earliest Gospel (Mark) is believed to have been written around 70 CE, with Matthew, Luke, and John appearing in the following decades. 

Paul’s letters (such as Romans, Corinthians, and Thessalonians) are considered the earliest extant Christian documents in the New Testament.

While the Gospels portray the life and death of Jesus (c. 30–33 CE), they were written down later, whereas Paul’s letters were written to existing churches to address practical problems and theological issues. Paul often refers to oral tradition or earlier theological understandings, because his writings represent early Christian teaching that predated the written Gospel stories.

Several prominent Founding Fathers embraced Deism, a philosophical belief in a rational creator (often called “Nature’s God” or “Providence”) who does not intervene in human affairs, valuing reason over religious dogma.

Key figures often cited as deists include Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe and Ethan Allen.

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Let’s begin by focusing on Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States, a spokesman for Democracy, and the principle author of the Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson was responsible for the Establishment Clause (forbids government from establishing or favoring a religion) and the Free Exercise Clause (protects the right to practice religion).

In years following he labored to make its words a reality in Virginia.

Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the Bible known as “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” (or the Jefferson Bible). Completed around 1820, Jefferson used a razor to cut and paste preferred verses from the Gospels, specifically removing accounts of miracles, the resurrection, and divinity, to focus solely on the moral teachings of Jesus. 

Jefferson was a Deist who admired Jesus’s ethics but skeptical of His Divinity.

He created the book for his own personal study to distill what he believed were the most rational and profound teachings of Jesus.

He physically cut passages from six different New Testaments (in English, French, Greek, and Latin) and pasted them into a scrapbook.

The book omits the Trinity, angels, miracles (such as walking on water), and the Resurrection, ending instead with Jesus being laid in the tomb.

The 86-page book was kept private during his life. It was later published by Congress in 1904, with copies often presented to new senators.

It’s important to note that many of the founders were, at times, described as “Christian Deists”. Most were relatively private about their personal beliefs, leading to ongoing debate among historians about the exact nature of their faith.

Please read my personal comments at the end.

LGBTQ+ is an umbrella acronym representing a broad group of sexual orientations and gender identities.

LGBTQ+: Stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning.

The (+) acknowledges additional identities such as Pansexual, Omnisexual, or Asexual. By doing so, LGBTQ+ encompasses diverse groups beyond just same-sex attraction, including Gender Identity.

Definitions:

• Lesbian: A woman who is sexually or romantically attracted to other women.
• Gay: Refers to individuals (most often men) attracted to the same sex.
• Bisexual: Those who identify as bisexual feel a sexual and/or romantic attraction to people of a different gender as well as their own. While this offers a basic definition, bisexual people are a diverse group. Each individual perceives their sexual orientation differently.

• Transgender: A transgender person has an internal sense of their own gender (gender identity) not matching the sex they were assigned at birth. A trans person’s gender identity is separate from their sexual attraction.
• Queer: “Queer” is often used as a term for anyone not strictly identifying as Heterosexual or Cisgender. It defies rigid labels, covering identities like gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, asexual, and questioning. ln general terms, it signals non-conformity to heteronormative standards.
• Usage: “Gay” is commonly used as a self-descriptor or in a narrow sense, whereas “LGBTQ+” is often used in political, social, or community contexts to represent a diverse group. 

Contextual Nuances

• Intersectionality: The LGBTQ+ acronym is often used to foster solidarity among distinct groups facing similar discrimination. 
• Gender identity and sexual orientation are two different things. Gender identity refers to your internal knowledge of your own gender—for example, your knowledge that you’re masculine or feminine, regardless of the sex organs you were born with, and typically doesn’t define who you might be sexually attracted to, if in fact you may not feel a sexual attraction to anyone. —- Sexual orientation has to do with whom you’re sexually attracted to.
• The opposite of transgender is cisgender, which describes persons whose gender identity matches their assigned sex.
• Fluid Gender: Describes a sexual orientation that can change over time rather than being fixed. 
• NOTE: Transgender should not be confused with “transvestite,” which refers to cross-dressing without the desire for permanent transition.

My personal comments:

I grew up just a few houses down from someone who I believed was gay. He loved playing with dolls and had a better Barbie Doll collection than any girl in our neighborhood. He use to sit on the sidewalk in front of his house playing with them.

Most “guys” avoided him, and although he was one of the kindest and friendliest people I’ve ever met, he only had a small handful of friends, and least one enemy. Someone once planted a pipe bomb in his mailbox. He was severely injured, but not killed.

We remained good friends for many years, but we never had any deep conversations about life.

In retrospect, I think he was probably struggling with his gender identity and deeply depressed. I’ll never know. He put a gun to his head one night and pulled the trigger, ending his life.

That was in the early 80’s and although being gay is more accepted by our society than ever before, it’s still condemned by many.

I feel it’s our responsibility, as children of God, to support each other regardless of our view of the religious, political, and sexual preferences of others, as long as we as long as we do so with love and respect.

We all need to allow others to live their lives, and focus on our own.