When preachers tell Bible stories, they often don't tell the whole story. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Jonathan Kirsch tells some of the forbidden tales of the Bible. Also, deciding which Bible stories our children should learn. And a religion scholar says the Good Book's filled with the wrong kind of stories.

SEGMENT 1

Regina Schwartz teaches at Northwestern University and directs the Chicago Institute of Religion, Ethics and Violence. She tells Jim Fleming that the Old Testament God's demands and rigidity helped create our culture of competition and agression and that the Bible can easily be subverted to further nationalistic aims. Schwartz is the author of "The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism."

SEGMENT 2:

Book columnist and author Jonathan Kirsch tells Judith Strasser that many Bible stories get censored in the telling. Kirsch is the author of "The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible." Also, Ruth Bottigheimer talks with Judith Strasser about children's Bibles and the way each age has adapted the stories to suit its own image of God. Bottigheimer's book is "The Bible for Children: From the Age of Gutenberg to the Present."

SEGMENT 3:

A.N. Wilson, literary editor of the Evening Standard, talks with Steve Paulson about the importance of the Apostle Paul to early Christianity and speculates on Paul's motivation. Wilson's book on the subject is "Paul: The Mind of the Apostle."

Distribution dates:

• week of 09/28/97 - hour 3