The Surviving Followers of John the Baptist and (Doubting) St. Thomas, and 4 of Judas's 30 Pieces!

THIS EPISODE HAS A HISTORIC REVEAL: 4 OF JUDAS’S 30 PIECES OF SILVER!
NOT SEEN IN PUBLIC SINCE 1972

A Story Club: Global Cultures S1 E8
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The global dominance of Western Christianity (both Catholicism and Protestantism) is somewhat of a historical accident. This is because the lands of the original Christians are now Muslim-ruled (in the Muslim view, however, the original Christians actually practiced Islam).

The Western (Latin/European) Church inadvertently became the biggest surviving body, and later, though European Imperialism, it became the dominant form of Christianity that the world knows today.

However, throughout the Middle East and even in India, surviving descendants of the original Believers remain.

Two such examples are the followers of St. Thomas (the doubting Apostle), who founded a Church in south India (Malabar coast) on the Rome-India spice trade route; and the Mandaens, who are followers of John the Baptist (but not of Jesus), whose last large population was located in Iraq.

The Gospel of St. Thomas and the Mandaen Book of John are not accepted by the Western Church as part of the Canonic Bible, but are sacred to these followers.

While the followers of St. Thomas have lived peacefully in India, the Mandaeans have been persecuted in the Middle East, and after the recent “liberation” of Iraq in 2003 by George Bush, Islamic radicals have committed a genocide against the majority of them.

Join me, Dr. Kirk Meighoo as we discuss with experts on these two peoples, Charles Haberl and Jo Nambiar