A Google news alert from Saturday included this BeliefNet story about a campaign by Vatican scholars to promote a more sympathetic view of Judas Iscariot, aka Jesus’ betrayer.

After looking around for more coverage, I came across several bloggers, including Relapsed Catholic, who noted that The Times (London) incorrectly translated the words of Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science. Apparently no makeover has been scheduled for the scorned disciple.

Too bad. BeliefNet was already stirring up the pop culture possibilities:

As an icon in popular culture, there is no ambiguity about Judas Iscariot. From the fan who shouted “Judas” at Bob Dylan in 1966 to the MPs who confessed to Judas-like feelings over the downfall of Charles Kennedy, he is the personification of a traitor. In handing over his friend Jesus to the Roman authorities for 30 pieces of silver, an act which directly resulted in his master’s crucifixion, Judas became irredeemable; the only disciple who could not be saved by redemption.

Reports from the Vatican suggest, however, that Judas may soon be subject to a transformation most beloved of popular culture: a makeover. Scholars, led by Monsignor Walter Brandmuller of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science, are campaigning for a more positive “re-reading” of the Judas story. This will “resolve the problem of an apparent lack of mercy by Jesus toward one of his closest collaborators” and recognise Judas as an essential actor in Jesus’s sacrifice, thereby offering the man some respite from the lowest pits of hell, as portrayed in Dante’s Inferno.

Curiously, this brings the Catholic church in alignment with its popular culture nemesis, The Simpsons. In one episode, Todd Flanders, the youngest of the evangelical Christian neighbours of the Simpsons, has Judas round for dinner. Todd is concerned that Judas isn’t eating his “last supper” and Judas replies: “I can’t eat ’cause my conscience is heavy.”

At least Mel Gibson must be relieved. A lot of effort went into Judas’ horrific demon-children-induced suicide scene in Passion of the Christ.

I visited The Revealer, a favorite site about media and religion, to see if it had covered the story. I didn’t find anything on the alleged Judas campaign, but Jeff Sharlet posted recently about Pastor Rod Parsley, the “fundamentalist feudal prince of Ohio” who stirred up support for Bush in 2004 by warning “the citizenry that they would all go gay if they didn’t beat back the homosexual agenda.”

Apparently Pastor Rod has gone all Freudian with the sale of 37-inch sword, “a reminder that this is your year to walk in complete fearlessness.”

The Revealer also points to this Reuters story on Son of Man, which bills itself as the world’s first black Jesus movie. The South African film made its premiere yesterday at Sundance.

“We wanted to look at the gospels as if they were written by spindoctors and to strip that away and look at the truth,” director Mark Dornford-May told Reuters. “The truth is that Christ was born in an occupied state and preached equality at a time when that wasn’t very acceptable.”

“We have to accept that Christ has been hijacked a bit — he’s gone very blonde haired and blue-eyed,” Dornford-May added.