golden rule

During a congressional debate in 1860, as pressure simmered toward the Civil War, the House of Representatives got disorderly. An anti-slavery Massachusetts Republican, named Charles Train, was finding it hard to deliver his remarks amid pestering by a pro-slavery Alabama Democrat, George Houston. Congressman Train gamely persisted, but when Houston, the pro-slavery guy, interrupted, and said, “You are a lying scoundrel,” well, then the situation became too much for those “gentlemen,” as members of Congress refer to themselves. Proceedings stopped abruptly, until, finally, the Alabamian apologized.

Bart D. Ehrman is a leading authority on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity, and the author or editor of more than thirty books,…