JUDAS & HIS SUPPORTERS

Just released from prison on perjury charges and looking for a good project? Well, why not try to rehabilitate Judas Iscariot:

Author Jeffrey Archer, who was cast out of Britain’s Conservative Party after being jailed on perjury charges, is coming to the defense of another noted black sheep — Judas Iscariot.

Archer announced Sunday that his new novel chronicling the life of the man who betrayed Jesus, “The Gospel According to Judas, by Benjamin Iscariot,” will be published in March.

Archer’s publisher, Macmillan, said the book imagines Judas as a politician who betrays Jesus not for money, but because of the belief he is an ineffective leader unable to challenge the authority of the Romans. Unlike the Gospels, Judas does not kill himself but instead survives and recounts his story to a son — the narrator of Archer’s book.

Oddly, Desmond Tutu did a reading for the audio book.

Sometimes one is best identified by his friends.